Space History Photo: Boilerplate Mercury Capsule

Engineers inspect a boilerplate Mercury capsule in 1960. (Image credit: NASA)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, looking like a scene from an H.G. Wells novel, engineers inspect and test a boilerplate Mercury space capsule. Note the array of bulky test equipment on the table and the less than clean-room conditions.

Today such testing is conducted under virtually sterile conditions in a completely controlled environment.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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