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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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