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Mercury-Atlas 7

A Project Mercury orbital mission that carried Scott Carpenter aboard Aurora 7 for three orbits of Earth.

Mercury-Atlas 7
NASA · Stored JPEG is byte-for-byte pixel-identical after decode to NASA's linked 789x1024 aurora_7_8_moment_of_ignition_s62-05531.jpg asset (stored SHA-256 2ae90ed3a7cd6e84f9e9f7246e74ea33ad1e7a3fdf24712b1d6592af5d74839a; authoritative SHA-256 2a0d102aaa3cb02adff3c6c2835383c587ca5cda632b57a144e40f13ec7b539f). The NASA Mercury Atlas 7: Aurora 7 page identifies this as the Aurora 7 capsule lifting off from Pad 14 on May 24, 1962, and credits NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/mercury-atlas-7-aurora-7/. NASA's current Images and Media Usage Guidelines state NASA content is generally not copyrighted, while separately identified third-party material remains protected; commercial use must not imply NASA endorsement, and NASA logos and identifiers are protected: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. This is an asset-level provenance and conservative reuse statement, not a blanket license. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
Aurora 7MA-7
Name
Mercury-Atlas 7
Status
completed

Details

Astronauts
Description
A Project Mercury orbital mission that carried Scott Carpenter aboard Aurora 7 for three orbits of Earth.
Destination
Earth orbit at approximately 166.8 × 99.9 statute miles for three revolutions, followed by splashdown at 19°29′N, 64°05′W in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 250 nautical miles beyond the intended recovery area.
End Date
1962-05-24
Launch Site
Outcome
Successful second U.S. orbital flight. Scott Carpenter completed three Earth orbits and all primary mission objectives aboard Aurora 7 during a 4-hour, 56-minute, 5-second flight. A pitch-horizon-scanner malfunction was compensated for in flight without compromising mission success; the capsule overshot its intended recovery area by 250 nautical miles, but Carpenter was recovered safely.
Programs
Start Date
1962-05-24
Vehicle Families

Links

Official Url
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/mercury-atlas-7-aurora-7/

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
June 29, 2026 at 04:59:46 UTC
Updated Time
September 8, 2026 at 00:26:24 UTC
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