Project Mercury was started in 1958 and was completed in 1963. The program made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963. The manned missions main objectives were to orbit a manned spacecraft around the the earth, to investigate man's ability to function in in space, and to recover both man and spacecraft safely upon splashdown. most of the manned mercury missions were a complete success except for a few. The Mercury project was a pioneer in manned US spaceflight.   

Seen here in this photo, astronauts John Glenn, Virgil Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, Donald "Deke" Slayton and Gordon Cooper were among the elite group of America's first space explorers.  The movie, "The Right Stuff" told the story of these courageous pioneers of space.