MR-1: The Four-Inch Flight 65 years ago today, the first attempt to launch a Mercury capsule on a Redstone rocket (MR-1) took place. Unfortunately, a fault in the ground equipment caused the engines to shut down shortly after firing, lifting the vehicle four inches off the ground before it settled back down on the launch pad. The capsule's escape rocket was activated, causing it to jettison itself and triggering the spacecraft's parachutes to deploy. NASA launched its first astronaut to space ab

The Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft had to be recovered from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. | Science Channel

#OTD On this day (November 21) in 1960, Mercury-Redstone 1 took a four-inch flight - the Redstone rocket's engines fired enough to lift it about four inches before the engines cut out. The vehicle came back to a vertical resting position on the launch pad. The engine failure automatically activated the escape tower system, but it left the uncrewed capsule behind. Read more about what initially seemed like a huge blow to the Mercury program here, in this excerpt from the NASA History publication