1 of 5000

|

acrylic prints space acrylic prints mercury acrylic prints atlas acrylic prints mercury-atlas acrylic prints suborbital acrylic prints space program acrylic prints capsule acrylic prints nasa acrylic prints launch acrylic prints lift-off acrylic prints liftoff acrylic prints lift off acrylic prints mercury program acrylic prints launch vehicle acrylic prints spacecraft acrylic prints

photographs space photos mercury photos atlas photos mercury-atlas photos suborbital photos space program photos capsule photos nasa photos launch photos lift-off photos liftoff photos lift off photos mercury program photos launch vehicle photos spacecraft photos

Add This Artwork to Your Favorites Collection

Comment

Add This Artwork to Your Favorites Collection

Comment

An Atlas vehicle is shown as it is raised into its launch gantry. This Atlas attempted to launch a Mercury spacecraft (without any astronauts aboard) into orbital flight. The launch vehicle developed 360,000 pounds of thrust and burned RP-1, a kerosene-like fuel, and liquid oxygen. It was about 60 feet in length and 10 feet in diameter at the tank section. This was the first attempt by NASA to put a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit. Unfortunately, this Atlas exploded at launch. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II fami...