Page:Project Mercury - A Chronology.pdf/20

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ducted. In each case, the primate survived the flight, but succumbed before his capsule was located.

Convair's MX-774 test vehicle, later designated the Atlas and used as a launch vehicle in the Mercury program, was test-fired for the first time.

The first Secretary of Defense, James V. Forrestal, in his initial report to President Harry Truman, included a brief item indicating that the earth satellite program, which was being carried out independently by the military services, was assigned to the Committee on Guided Missiles for coordination.

President Harry S. Truman signed a bill authorizing the missile test range, which is now the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Goverment decided to resume MX~774 studies, and the project was then designated the Atlas. Several test vehicles had been fired in 1948 and 1949, after which the Convair MX-774 (Atlas) missile project had been shelved. The company, however, had continued to fund a research program.

The first suceessful recovery of animals from rocket flight in the Western Hemisphere was made when a monkey and 11 mice survived an Aerobee launch to an altitude of 236,000 feet.