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A sign near the spacecraft. It reads:

Sigma 7

In Sigma 7, the Mercury spacecraft displayed here, Wally Schirra orbited Earth six times. Advanced for their time, yet amazingly primitive to us today, Mercury pioneered the way for all American piloted spacecraft since. The Mercury Astronauts proved that humans could withstand spaceflight. They were:

Suborbital Flights	Orbital Flights
Alan Shepard Mercury-Redstone 3 Freedom 7 May 5, 1961	John Glenn Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 February 20, 1962	Wally Schirra Mercury-Atlas 8 Sigma 7 October 3, 1962
Gus Grissom Mercury-Redstone 4 Liberty Bell 7 July 21, 1961	Scott Carpenter Mercury-Atlas 7 Aurora 7 May 24, 1962	Gordon Cooper Mercury-Atlas 9 Faith 7 May 15-16, 1963

Shepard's suborbital flight, America's first venture into space, lasted 16 minutes. John Glenn's mission, America's first orbital flight, lasted 5 hours. Gordon Cooper piloted Faith 7 on a 34-hour, 22-orbit flight.