Dragon Models 1/72 Mercury Spacecraft Freedom 7"

This is a nice looking model. It is 1/72 scale, which means that it is fairly small. It is too expensive for what you are getting, but it is also the only game in town if you want a Mercury spacecraft model, so go ahead and get one while they are available. The part of the display stand that attaches to the model is plastic and easily broken. That happened on my Gemini model. I wish Dragon would make it metal instead of plastic. Also, the small piece that fits into the top of the escape tower does not fit well enough, so it is a bit loose. I love these Dragon Wings spacecraft models, and am glad that they are available. I just wish that they were a bit better designed.

I have the 1/72 scale Saturn V that I display, and wanted this as a comparison piece to show the difference in size between Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. Wow! Even at the same scale - which is tiny for the Mercury - I'm impressed at the level of detail that Dragon models provides. There are two options. You can install either the Launch Escape System that you see in the photo, or the on-orbit antenna, which is tucked away inside the box. Put it next to the 1/72 scale Command/Service Modules, and you'll be amazed at how tiny the Mercury spacecraft actually was.

Nice model. Great detail.

Following World War II, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics both enlisted the aid of German rocket scientists who had worked for the Nazis to develop such weapons as the V-1 (a "dumb" jet-powered drone/flying bomb) and the V-2 (or A-4), the world's first true intercontinental ballistic missile, both of which were used to attack London during the war. Both weapons were extremely destructive, but fortunately limited in scope.Thus began the vaunted Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s. The United States got out of the starting gate first when it managed several launches of captured V-2s in late 1945 from White Sands, NM. One of the 1946 launches reached 65 miles into space, and snapped the first true pictures of the curvature of the Earth. Eventually, the V-2s were used as the first stages in "Project Bumper," in which the V-2 carried a smaller WAC Corporal rocket into space. In 1949, operations were shifted from White Sands to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where they remain to this day.Despite America's early lead in the Space Race, the U.S. did not emphasize rocket research, and so was caught flat-footed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviets placed a satellite, called "Sputnik" or "Fellow Traveler" into earth orbit. Cold War tensions were nearing the boiling point in late 1957, and so the U.S. hurriedly tried to play catch up. In December of 1957, the U.S. tried launching Vanguard Test Vehicle 3, which, memorably, blew up spectacularly on the launching pad. On January 23, 1958, the U.S. succeeded in launching Explorer I.After a series of Navy, Army, and Air Force launches, the U.S. Government placed space exploration into the hands of NACA, the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics. NACA was retasked as NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and began a series of launches under the rubric of "Project Mercury" in 1959. Project Mercury's ultimate goal was to place a man in orbit around the earth and return him safely. While test pilots were vetted for the new astronaut corps, a series of tests using the "Little Joe" solid fuel rocket and an automated capsule were undertaken. The "Little Joe" graduated to the "Big Joe" and eventually to the Redstone, a modified ICBM, which flew mice, rhesus monkeys, a primitive robot, and finally chimpanzees into space.The Americans' loping pace into space was turned topsy-turvy when the Soviets yet again stole a march on them by launching the world's first manned spaceflight on April 12, 1961. the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed only one orbit and safely ejected from his Vostok capsule after reentry (the Russians did not release this last detail until after the fall of the Soviet Union).In panic that the Soviets could militarily control the 'high ground' of space, the U.S. launched it's first manned Mercury mission on May 5, 1961, atop a Redstone booster. Piloted by astronaut Alan B. Shepard, "Freedom 7" was a ballistic flight that did not attempt an orbit. The Redstone did not have the necessary thrust to speed Shepard to orbit.It was only three weeks after this historic but technically relatively underwhelming flight that President John F. Kennedy announced that we were going to the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Moon seemed every one of it's 239,000 miles away at that moment.It was not until February 20, 1962 that John Glenn, launched atop an Atlas rocket, did orbit the earth (three times) in "Friendship 7". We were on our way to the Moon, which we would reach by 1969.This little model, with its distinctive red emergency escape assembly, recalls those days of early human spaceflight. The men who flew the Mercury had to be nerveless. The Mercury was a tiny ship, with less than 2 cubic meters of space inside it. The astronauts joked that they did not get into it as much as wear it, and in fact, one of the earliest manned prototypes, designed with the aid of astronaut Gus Grissom, fit only him, while taller, broader pilots were unable to make use of the ship. And despite the fact that the Mercury was first conceived as a "capsule," a manned can without windows or onboard controls, the astronaut corps demanded and got these things, refinements which ultimately allowed the Mercury astronauts and the United States to overtake the U.S.S.R. in spaceflight.Though this model is a little overpriced for its size, it makes a nice enhancement to any office. Beware of the fragile plastic escape tower when unpacking the model.