Blockhouse at Launch Complex 143D ModelNoAI
Launch Complex 14 was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984. In 1988, the blockhouse was restored and converted to meeting space to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of the final Mercury flight. Historically, the Atlas research and development testing program began at this site in 1957, and the US Air Force would conduct Atlas test launches at Complexes 11, 12, 13, and 14 through 1962. The site is more famously associated with the four crewed Atlas Mercury launches including Friendship 7, where John Glenn became the first American to successfully accomplish a human orbital flight mission. Glenn circled the earth three times aboard Mercury/Atlas (MA-6) on February 20, 1962. Other notable crewed Project Mercury missions from LC14 were the Aurora 7, with Scott Carpenter in 1962, the Sigma 7 with Walter M. Schirra, Jr. in 1962, and the Faith 7 with Gordon Cooper’s 22-orbit flight, in 1963.
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