In November 1959, the LJ-1A “Little Joe” was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. It marked the second attempt to send an instrumented capsule into flight using a Little Joe booster. The goal of this mission was to test the spacecraft’s escape system under the extreme aerodynamic pressures expected during an Atlas flight—around 1,000 pounds per square foot. Although the launch and recovery went smoothly, the test didn’t quite reach the maximum pressure conditions needed to fully evaluate the escape system. Even so, later missions achieved this goal, and the Little Joe program went on to demonstrate that the Mercury system’s design was both reliable and effective.
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| A rare Little Joe 1A launch cover, postmarked at Wallops Island on November 4, 1959. |
