|Mission name||Mercury-Atlas 8| |Spacecraft name||Σ 7 (Sigma 7)|
|Spacecraft mass||3,029 lb (1,374 kg)| |Crew||Walter M. Schirra|
|Call sign||Sigma 7| |Launch vehicle||Atlas LV-3B| |Launch
pad||LC-14 (CCAF)| |Launch date||October 3, 1962, 12:15:12 UTC|
|Landing||October 3, 1962, 21:28:22 UTC |Number of orbits||6|
|Apogee||152.8 nmi (283.0 km)| |Perigee||86.94 nmi (161.01 km)|
|Orbital period||88:55 min:sec.| |Peak acceleration||8.1 g (79
m/s²)| |Walter "Wally" Marty Schirra, Jr.| Mercury-Atlas 8
(MA-8) was the fifth United States manned space mission, part of
NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr.,
orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October
3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical
evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was
the longest U.S. manned orbital flight yet achieved in the Space
Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the
Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury
spacecraft's durability ahe