Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) was the first attempt to launch a Mercury capsule and occurred on July 29, 1960 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system. The Atlas rocket suffered a structural failure 58 seconds after launch at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet (9.1 km) and 11,000 feet (3.4 km) down range. July 29, 1960 at 13:13 UTC · Launch Failure Atlas LV-3B — National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to Suborbital Space Launch Complex 14, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA Program: Mercury Data: Launch Library 2, The Space Devs. Image via The Space Devs.