Getting NASA’s Project Mercury off the Ground

NASA Project Mercury Little Joe 1B launch escape system test failure on January 21, 1960.. Credit: NASA.

In this episode of a Terranauts Guide to Leaving The Planet, we return to the story of First Terranaut Gene Kranz and the early days of NASA’s Mercury Project which was supposed to get the first American into space.

As we found out last time, though, Project Mercury was having trouble getting more than a few inches off the launch pad. In addition to that, they had some pretty big challenges to overcome. Most of which had nothing to do with getting to space, and everything to do with connecting places on Earth.

Listen in.

Getting NASA’s Project Mercury off the Ground

About Terranauts Season 2

This year on Terranauts we’re going to offer a mix of interviews with Terranauts, people who go to space all the time without leaving the planet, and we’re also planning regular instalments of the Terranauts Guide to Leaving the Planet where we explore the history of humankind’s adventures off the planet.

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About Iain Christie

Founder and CEO at SideKickSixtyFive Consulting and host of the Terranauts podcast. Iain is a seasoned business executive with deep understanding of the space business and government procurement policy. Iain worked for 22 years at Neptec including as CEO. He was a VP at the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, is a mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab and a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.

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