posted 06-22-2010 02:26 PM               

Space Cover #62, Just Another Redstone?

This typical looking Redstone launch covers is similar to the many other Redstone launches of the period but is really for a very different event as it is actually for the Mercury-Redstone Booster Development (typically referred to as Mercury-Restone BD) for Project Mercury. The rocket from Launch Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral using a Boilerplate Mercury spacecraft and Redstone MRLV-5 booster.

Wernher von Braun added this Mercury-Redstone BD to the launch schedule between the MR-2 and MR-3 missions because of over acceleration and harmonic vibration problems with the Redstone rocket determined in the analysis of Ham's flight.

The successful Mercury-Redstone BD mission lasted 8 minutes and 23 seconds reaching an apogee of 113.5 miles and a range of 307 miles. There was no planned separation of the Redstone rocket and boilerplate Mercury spacecraft so they impacted together 307 miles downrange, five miles short of the planned landing site.

Because most cover servicers just denoted the covers for this flight as "Redstone," as in the cover pictured, the significance of this cover is usually lost and many collectors pass up adding an important cover to their collection. So if you see one...