Big Joe ready for launch at Cape Canaveral, FL.
The objective of "Big Joe" was to test the ablating heatshield. The flight was both a success and failure - the heatshield survived reentry and was in remarkably good condition when retrieved from the Atlantic. The Atlas-D booster, however, failed to stage and separated too late from the Mercury capsule.
NASA
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2002-000045.jpg">Great Images in NASA</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2002-000045.html">Description</a>