America's First Spaceship: Project Mercury (Infographic)

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Take a look at how the first American astronauts flew in space on NASA's Mercury space capsules in this SPACE.com infographic.
Take a look at how the first American astronauts flew in space on NASA's Mercury space capsules in this SPACE.com infographic. (Image credit: Karl Tate/SPACE.com)

The Mercury space capsule was NASA's first manned spaceship and launched the first Americans into orbit in the early 1960s. The one-person spacecraft was used in three suborbital flights and three orbital flights before being replaced by the two-person Gemini capsules. See how the Mercury capsule worked in the SPACE.com Infographic above.

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Karl Tate
Karl Tate
Space.com contributor

Karl's association with Space.com goes back to 2000, when he was hired to produce interactive Flash graphics. From 2010 to 2016, Karl worked as an infographics specialist across all editorial properties of Purch (formerly known as TechMediaNetwork).  Before joining Space.com, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web.  He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University and now works as a freelance graphic designer in New York City.