Mercury-Little-Joe 1A

Little Joe 1A (LJ-1A) was an unmanned test flight as part of the Mercury program.

As with the failed Little Joe 1 mission, a flight abort should be simulated at maximum aerodynamic load (Max Q). For this purpose, a capsule model (Mercury Boilerplate) including a rescue rocket was launched with a Little Joe rocket. The launch took place on November 4, 1959. The signal to abort the flight also came at the desired time, but it took a few seconds until the rescue rockets generated enough thrust, so that the moment of maximum aerodynamic load had already passed.

Therefore the flight was repeated again with Little Joe 1B. Since the mission was otherwise successful, a monkey was transported to Little Joe 1B.

A top speed of 3.254 km/h and a maximum acceleration of 16.9 g were achieved. The capsule flew a distance of 17.7 km and reached its peak at an altitude of 14.5 km. The flight lasted 8 minutes and 11 seconds. The total weight of the payload (Mercury boilerplate) was 1,007 kg.