The Explorers' Club, № CMXLVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 62nd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 3
25 April 1961: Mercury-Atlas 3 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying an unnamed Mercury capsule atop an Atlas LV-3B rocket; the pitch & roll program to steer the booster out over the Atlantic did not initiate & the range safety officer issued the self-destruct command; the launch escape system worked flawlessly, carrying the capsule away to a successful splashdown.

Commentary: To place Mercury-Atlas 3 in context, the test took place thirteen days after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space during the orbital Vostok 1 flight & ten days before Alan Shepard became the second man & first American in space during the suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 flight of the Freedom 7 capsule.

Semper exploro.