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Overall view of the Mercury MA-2 spacecraft.

Picture 1 of 4.

The sign under the hatch reads

MA2

The first Mercury spacecraft to be flown on an Atlas booster. This was an instrumentation flight (unmanned).

Feb. 21, 1961

Strictly speaking, the first Mercury spacecraft flown on an Atlas booster was the MA-1 spacecraft, but that flight didn't turn out very well.