Mercury-Redstone 2
Launch of Mercury-Redstone 2
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| Mission type | Test flight |
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| Operator | NASA |
| Mission duration | 16 minutes, 39 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 679 kilometers (422 mi) |
| Apogee | 253 kilometers (157 mi) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Mercury No.5 |
| Manufacturer | McDonnell Aircraft |
| Launch mass | 1,203 kilograms (2,652 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | January 31, 1961, 16:55 UTC |
| Rocket | Redstone MRLV MR-2 |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-5 |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | USS Donner |
| Landing date | January 31, 1961, 17:12 UTC |
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Project Mercury
Mercury-Redstone series |
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Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) was the penultimate test flight of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle prior to the first manned American space mission in Project Mercury. It was launched at 16:55 UTC on January 31, 1961 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mercury spacecraft No. 5 carried Ham the Chimp, a chimpanzee, on a suborbital flight, landing in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds after launch.
The previous Mercury-Redstone mission, MR-1A, flew a trajectory that was too steep with accelerations too high for a human passenger. MR-1A had climbed to its programmed apogee of about 130 miles (209 km) and landed 235 miles (378 km) downrange. Mercury-Redstone 2 would follow a more flattened trajectory. Its planned flight path was an apogee of 115 miles (185 km) and a range of 290 miles (467 km).
Mercury spacecraft No. 5 contained six new systems that had not been on previous flights: environmental control system, attitude stabilization control system, live retrorockets, voice communications system, "closed loop" abort sensing system, and a pneumatic landing bag.
Six chimpanzees (four female and two male) and 20 medical specialists and animal handlers from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, where the chimps lived and were trained, were moved into quarters behind Hangar S at Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 2, 1961. The six chimps were trained in Mercury simulators for three weeks. The day before the flight, two chimps were chosen for the mission: one primary, Ham, and one backup, a female chimp named Minnie. The competition was fierce, but Ham was full of energy and good humor. Ham was named in honor of Holloman Aerospace Medical Center. Ham was from Cameroon, Africa, (original name Chang, Chimp No. 65) and was purchased by the USAF July 9, 1959. He was 3 years 8 months old at launch.
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