Human Cargo
Since the pilots weren’t expected to actually fly anything, the MR-3 capsule designed for the first suborbital space flight lacked amenities. One particularly irked the Mercury Seven, as their lives as test pilots had revolved around seeing the world from a new perspective. There were no windows on the capsule. The Mercury 7 pressed engineers to install a window, more of a porthole, on the capsule so they could serve as more than just human cargo.
Engineers redesigned the capsule to have two 6-inch portholes. By Gus Grissom’s flight, the second of the program, NASA recognized the necessity and validity of an astronaut’s scientific observation. And they acknowledged that humans simply like to look out windows when on a unique adventure. Grissom’s capsule was fit with trapezoidal 19 inch by 11 inch (48 cm by 28 cm) windows.
