Launch index
Launch was a Partial Failure

Little Joe | LJ-5A

March 18, 1961 at 4:49 PM UTC

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Little Joe | LJ-5A launch image
Mission imagery · Little Joe

Launch details

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March 18, 1961 at 4:49 PM UTC

Status: Launch was a Partial Failure · Live feed refreshes every 30 seconds

Launch Area 1

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA · 37.9386, -75.4572

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Launch site
Launch Area 1

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Launch probability
Not published
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March 18, 1961 at 4:49 PM UTC
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March 18, 1961 at 4:49 PM UTC
Feed updated
June 14, 2023 at 4:31 AM UTC

Mission description

Uncrewed launch escape system test of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program. It was an attempted re-test of the failed Little Joe 5 flight.

Vehicle

Little Joe

Little Joe

Height

17 m

Diameter

LEO capacity

0 kg

Successful launches

3

Launch complex

Launch Area 1

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Wallops Flight Facility is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including uncrewed aerial vehicles.

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