Event on October 3, 1962. This is the second big event of October 3rd. On this day, Sigma 7, part of the Mercury program is successfully launched. It was launched from Cape Canaveral, with astronaut Wally Schirra on board. He did 6 Earth orbits for nine hours, then became an important mission of the Mercury program.

Mercury is one of NASA's largest programs and the first space program. The Mercury mission was to send a man into orbit. NASA's Mercury mission began just 20 days after the Russian tick, Vostok 1, was sent into space.  Mercury, being NASA's first space program, also had the best American astronaut on board. This was Alan Shepard and he went into space as the first American to ever go into space. He was the one who flew on the first mission of the Mercury program, and the capsule he flew with was called Mercury. The capsule in which he sat, was the smallest spacecraft in America, was only 1.7 cubic meters. 

The Mercury program lasted until 1963, had 7 astronauts on its missions, and cost over $ 384 million for the entire program. 

Article by: Andacs Robert Eugen

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