Project Mercury’s space capsule will be designed to achieve an around-the-earth orbit, but it will land passively by parachute. ... landing 200 miles away. Next a manned capsule will orbit the ...

Ground teams watching live video of the capsule could see it careening toward Earth. There was no visible sign of the drogue parachute ... pieces of rock started floating out.

Six decades ago today, aboard the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, Wally Schirra lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida's Launch Complex 14 at 12:15 p.m., Carried by an Atlas LV-3B booster vehicle.