Science & Tech
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Little Joe rockets paved the way for Project Mercury, NASA's first manned spaceflight program. Seven unmanned Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops from 1959-1961 to test an escape system for the Mercury capsule. The tests done at Wallops for Project Mercury helped demonstrate that humans could be safely flown into space. During the Little Joe-2 launch, on December 4, 1959, the capsule had one passenger, a Rhesus Monkey named "Sam." Sam experienced 3 minutes and 13 seconds of weightlessness before the escape capsule separated as planned and was successfully recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.
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