Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

26 First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
rocket, and Gordon Cooper served as liaison with the rocket team developing the
launch systems. 82 When problems arose during MA-4, an unpiloted flight of the
Mercury-Atlas system in September 1961, Robert Gilruth commented that had an
astronaut been aboard he could have diagnosed and overcome the malfunctions
of the automated system. That was why they were present, he asserted. In the end,
Mercury as a system worked, but not without flaws, and the program successfully
flew six humans in space between 5 May 1961 and 15 to 16 May 1963. 83
Building the Mercury Capsule
The Mercury spacecraft flown by the first astronauts was the product of a
genius incarnate in the form of a diminutive Cajun by the name of Dr. Maxime
A. Faget, an engineering graduate of Louisiana State University and submarine
officer in World War II. Working at the Langley Research Center in Hampton,
Virginia, he was one of the most innovative and thoughtful engineers working
on Mercury. While everyone thinking about spaceflight in the 1950s was
obsessed with rocket planes, Faget realized that space was an entirely different
environment and could effectively be accessed using an entirely different type
of vehicle. 84
During November and December 1958, the Space Task Group energetically
pursued the development of the ballistic capsule flown by the astronauts. Faget
became the chief designer of the Mercury spacecraft, and on 7 November 1958,
held a briefing for 40 aerospace firms to explain the requirements for bidding
on a NASA contract to build the capsule according to Faget’s specifications.
A week later, after 20 firms had indicated an interest, Faget’s team mailed out
requests for proposals. They received 11 proposals on 11 December and worked
over the Christmas holidays to complete an evaluation. The Source Evaluation
Board, convened under Faget’s direction, recommended that the McDonnell
Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, serve as the prime manufacturer
for this system. The NASA leadership accepted this decision and announced the
contract award on 9 January 1959. In the end NASA procured one dozen capsules
at an estimated cost of $18.3 million—plus an award fee of $1.5 million—
but the actual costs almost immediately spiraled upwards, causing considerable
concern among senior government officials even as they made the funds avail­
82. Cooper with Henderson, Leap of Faith, pp. 20–22. See also Donald K. “Deke” Slayton with
Michael Cassutt, Deke! U.S. Manned Space from Mercury to the Shuttle (New York: Forge, 1994), pp.
78–79.
83. John Catchpole, Project Mercury: NASA’s First Manned Space Programme (Chichester, UK: Springer
Praxis, 2001), p. 310. Before the astronauts flew, however, NASA launched primates into space to
test the system. See George M. Low, Program Chief, Manned Spaceflight, NASA Memorandum for
Mr. R. R. Gilruth, Director, Project Mercury, NASA, “Animal Payloads for Little Joe,” 19 June 1959,
with attached Memorandum from T.K.G to George M. Low, 15 June 1959; NASA, Information Guide
for Animal Launches in Project Mercury, 23 July 1959. Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference
Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
84. “Maxime A. Faget,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.