Vintage 1996 NASA Project Mercury Spaceflight Program Metal Collector 5-Card Set

Description: This is a collector's item for space enthusiasts. It's a vintage metal collector card set that dates back to 1996. It belongs to the NASA Project Mercury Spaceflight Program and is themed on space travel and astronauts. The collector set comes in a purple tin case and has a set of cards featuring exploration missions primarily based on the planet Mercury. They are of high quality and are a great addition to any collection. Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.68 billion (adjusted for inflation). The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight. Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space. The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft, and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin. Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship. The Mercury project gained popularity, and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight. We strongly encourage you to thoroughly read the condition details above and to view all of the photos before purchasing, as these photos describe the item most accurately. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as we can. All orders are packaged properly and promptly shipped from Las Vegas, NV, USA. Thank you for your interest; please take the time to view all of the items within our Curioddities eBay store, as we have a wide variety of items including antiques, books and magazines, collectibles, music, toys, and many other vintage rarities and obscurities. We will combine shipping costs, just ask!

Price: 9.99 USD

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

End Time: 2024-08-05T05:34:45.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD