Background
The Atlas was first designed to be an Intercontinental ballistic missile, but as ICBM technology advanced and the Atlas was
no longer considered cutting-edge, it found a new life, a life perhaps even more important to history: It was modified and
used as a space launch vehicle for the last four manned missions of Project Mercury, the first U.S. manned space program,
which included the first American, John Glenn, to orbit the earth.