Seen in these images from it's previous location at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Mercury Capsule #2 was the first production capsule launched into space. It's fifteen minute journey began with a launch atop a Redstone Booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida's Launch Complex 5. It has the round porthole despised by the astronauts but utilized in Alan Shepards flight. It is now displayed in the KSC Visitor Complex's new Center for Early Space Exploration. The ropes coming from the top of the capsule extend to a large picture of a a parachute deflating after the capsule splashed down on the blue floor.
Location: KSC Visitors Complex
Date: December 1999
Photo by: Jim Gerard
Mission information available from NASA.
More images of a full walk around at Ninfinger Productions website.
Display room
Faded paint
Roll rocket detail
The other side of the Mercury capsule at KSCVC. Here you can see the periscope access, although both the periscope and it's protective door have been removed.
