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Mercury-Redstone
Freedom 7
U.S. Air Force Space Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL
Located on the launch pad from whence it's sister ships set flight, LC 5, this Redstone has the most historically accurate appearence of the MRs found at the KSC/Cape area.
Images by: Jim Gerard
Date: August 20, 2007
Older Images
New Mercury Redstone at the Air Force Space Museum in Cape Canaveral.  It was constructed by Guard-Lee of Apopka, Florida to replace the damaged display (see below).

Spacecraft atop Mercury Redstone model.  This model is much more accurate than the previous display, including the round viewport found in the Freedom 7 capsule.

Images by: Jim Gerard
Date: June 21, 2000
On September 15, 1999 Hurricane Floyd brushed by Florida's Space Coast and the Cape Canveral Air Station.  While doing little damage to the launch pads vital to Amerca's space industry, a casualty occured at the Air Force Space Museum located in the Air Station. This was the mock-up of the MR-7 launch vehicle which lofted Alan Shepard on Amerca's first spacefilght from Launch Complex 5/6.  Below are images of the fallen bird.
Fallen Redstone Fallen Redstone If you look at the image from the KSC Redstone page, you can see that this part of the booster was misproportioned and slightly conical in shape, so much so that the capsule hung over on the sides quite a bit. 
The fallen Redstone.  This is probably extremely salvageable and is not as bad as it looks.  The upper section (above the black stripe) is all fabricated and could be rebuilt.  It appears the rocket tumbled when one or two of it's guy wires snapped.  The base, which was welded to plates on the pad, seems to have rusted away enough that it gave way.  This shows more damge to the upper portion of the Redstone.  The capsule is not a boilerplate but mearly a 1:1 model made from what appears to be aluminum.  This 1:1 aluminum model was badly crushed in the fall, as well as the fabricated Escape Tower.
Images by: Jim Gerard
Date: September 17, 1999
(Note:This is an image of the original display, with the text below describing it.  It is included to allow comparison with the new model.)

This replica has the most authentic markings of the four in the area, mirroring those of MR-3 that launched Alan Shepard.  The fin roll pattern is shifted 90 degrees. Unfortunately, it suffers from being constructed on a shorter bodied Redstone Missile rather than the Jupiter C.  The tube under the roll pattern narrows appreciatively as it nears the spacecraft.  The spacecraft is more fabricated from aluminum.

Image by: Jim Gerard
Date: April 5, 1996

Acronyms

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Last Updated on: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

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A Field Guide to American Spacecraft
by Jim Gerard
www.americanspacecraft.com