Mercury-Little-Joe 1B

Little Joe 1B (LJ-1B) was a test flight as part of the Mercury program. Since the two previous missions Little-Joe 1 and Little-Joe 1A could not simulate a flight abort during maximum aerodynamic load, this should be carried out with this mission. On board of the capsule was the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) “Miss Sam”. Like its predecessor “Sam” from Flight Little Joe 2, it was named after the US Air Force School of Aviation Medicine. This time the flight was aborted at the desired time and Miss Sam was exposed to weightlessness for 28 seconds. The Mercury capsule (Mercury Boilerplate) was recovered by a helicopter after splashdown and returned to Wallops Island.

The Little Joe 1B reached a summit height of 14.5 km and covered a distance of 19 km. The flight lasted a total of 8 minutes and 35 seconds. The payload (Mercury boilerplate) weighed 1,007 kg.

Miss Sam survived the test flight largely unscathed. The change in thrust as the capsule separated from the rescue rocket caused it to scream and it took about 30 seconds for it to calm down again. She also remained uninjured during the scheduled landing in the Atlantic about 19 km from the launch pad on Wallops Island. The subsequent medical examination on Wallops Island revealed only a very mild form of nystagmus. She was then returned to her enclosure at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas. It´s unknown what happened to her afterwards.