The Mercury spacecraft is the United States’ first human spaceflight vehicle. Mercury launched in 1959 and continued in use until 1963. With no computers, all onboard systems were operated by mechanical timers or by the single astronaut pilot. Both Mercury-Redstone and Mercury-Atlas rockets launched this capsule, carrying astronauts to suborbital and orbital flights. Astronauts could be no taller than 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 meters), and space was so restricted that designers had to mold seats to fit astronauts’ bodies.

•Height: 11 ft 4 in / 345.4 cm

•Mass: 3,000 lb / 1360.8 kg

•Maximum diameter: 74 in / 188 cm

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury, which aimed to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely.