I was pondering yesterday’s flight of SpaceShipOne, and decided to lookup the information surrounding the first American sub-orbital flights. Alan Shepard – Project Mercury Freedom 7 has most of the details. It’s interesting to compare the two flight profiles: Shepard pulls something over six g’s on ascent, and hits 11 on descent, whereas SpaceShipOne pulled about five on ascent, and just coasted down with very little excessive g-loading. The Mercury capsule required explosive bolts, parachutes, and a water landing. SpaceShipOne coasted to a stop on an ordinary runway, and allowed Melvill to wave to the crowd even before he stopped rolling. And of course, the Mercury Freedom 7 required a pressure suit, apparently without appropriate accomadation for urination…

Oh, and here are some plans for a paper model of the Mercury Redstone rocket.