The Mercury program of NASA was America's first human spaceflight program, spanning from 1958 to 1963 and consisting primarily of a series of manned spaceflights. The program aimed to put an astronaut into orbit around Earth and safely return them back to Earth's surface2.

The program consisted of a total of six manned spaceflights between 1960 and 1963, with astronaut Alan Shepard being the first American to reach space on the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission in May 1961. Other notable flights of the program include John Glenn's orbital mission on Friendship 7 in 1962 and the final Mercury mission, MA-9 in 1963, which lasted over 34 hours and was piloted by Gordon Cooper.

Throughout the program, the Mercury project helped NASA refine many of the new technologies associated with human spaceflight, including launch vehicles, spacecraft design, and astronaut training2. It also generated enormous public interest in space exploration and laid a foundation for future human spaceflight programs, including Project Gemini and the Apollo program2.

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