Mercury Redstone 6Spacecraft:S/C-16 Launch Vehicle: Redstone MR-6 Scheduled Launch: 1 Oct 1961 Last Scheduled: 5 May 1961 |
Prime Crew |
Description: 4th Mercury Redstone manned suborbital |
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J H Glenn 
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Backup Crew |
W M Schirra
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As of 3 February 1960, a total of 8 Redstone launches were planned, the first two of which were to be unmanned. Slayton would probably have flown the fourth manned suborbital Mercury mission; however, after the Soviet Union began orbiting cosmonauts in April 1961, NASA was keen to canceled later suborbital flights in the interest of proceeding to the Atlas orbital missions at the earliest possible date. The Mercury Redstone 6 mission was canceled by NASA administrator James Webb at the beginning of July, 1961. When Slayton and Schirra were reassigned to Atlas orbital missions, Schirra served as Slayton's backup, thus presumably Schirra would have served in the same role for Slayton's Redstone suborbital mission. The mission insignia shown is post factum, based on the name Slayton gave to his Atlas orbital flight before he was removed from flight status due to a heart condition. References:
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