what was the ascent trajectory of the mercury missions(the suborbitals one)

[goldenpeach]

What was the ascent trajectory of the first mercury missions:were they going straight up or were they doing a gravity turn?

Thank for reading this (very)short thread!

[tizalee]

The original name of mercury project is project astronaut. But later it was changed to Project Mercury. The suborbital mission was to launch the Redstone rocket into space and see the gravity level. It just fell towards Earth and landed in an ocean.

[Brotoro]

The two manned missions reached apogees of 116.5 and 118.3 miles. Both went down range about 300 miles.

[goldenpeach]

ok,but were they doing a gravity turn during the launch?

Or were they going straight up until they had no more fuel left?

[Nibb31]

Read the post above, they travelled more downrange than they travelled vertically, so they didn't go "straight up".

[PakledHostage]

The Wikipedia article for the Mercury-Redstone 3 flight (Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight) includes the image below:

The flight's timeline says it started its pitch program at 16 seconds into the flight, pitching at 2 degrees per second to an angle of 45 degrees.

[goldenpeach]

Ok,thank you!

[Captain Sierra]

The Wikipedia article for the Mercury-Redstone 3 flight (Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight) includes the image below:

The flight's timeline says it started its pitch program at 16 seconds into the flight, pitching at 2 degrees per second to an angle of 45 degrees.

Rep not working so public thumbs up for a detailed (and visual) answer to the man's question.