The Explorers' Club Special

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 8
3 October 1962: Mercury 8 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying Wally Schirra aboard the Mercury capsule Sigma 7 atop an Atlas rocket; the six-orbit flight plan focused on optimizing spacecraft performance & burned less fuel than the three-orbit missions of Mercury-Atlas 6 & 7; the Sigma 7 splashed down on target in the Pacific & was recovered by the U.S.S. Kearsarge.

Wayback Machine: № DCCCXLIII, "The Space Race—The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 8"

Commentary: Project Mercury was a giant leap into the unknown. How to conduct human spaceflight was being worked out in real time. Mercury-Atlas 8 was an operational triumph, a textbook flight that showed the Mercury spacecraft could be controlled & its resources conserved, giving N.A.S.A. the confidence to attempt a full-day flight (achieved during Mercury-Atlas 9), an achievement necessary to catch up to the Soviet Union's Vostok program.