File:Mercury Redstone MR-1 Connector (5691350527).jpg

As today is the 50th anniversary of the first American in space (Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight atop a Mercury Redstone rocket), I thought I would post a piece of the very first Mercury flight.

This connector, a bundle of discrete copper wires,was used to connect the Mercury spacecraft to the Redstone booster rocket.

On November 21, 1960, MR-1 was the first attempt to launch a spacecraft with the Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle. Intended to be an unmanned sub-orbital flight, the launch failed after lifting about four inches off the ground and then settling down (a “four inch flight”). The booster lost its electrical ground prematurely, and so this cable carried the cut-off signal to the spacecraft, and so the emergency escape recovery sequence was initiated, deploying the escape rocket tower and parachutes.

Shepard was remarkable brave to strap in to what seems like a primitive system in retrospect. (I posted <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5227637637">photos</a> of the hand controller, with mechanical linkages to the various engine valves from the three-axis hand grip.)

Some memorable quotes from Alan Shepard:

“It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

“I think all of us certainly believed the statistics which said that probably 88% chance of mission success and maybe 96% chance of survival. And we were willing to take those odds.”