Freedom 7 Full Flight Animation

 

Excellent animation from C-bass Productions illustrating Alan Shepard's suborbital flight in May 1961.

Some history from NASA:

The main scientific objective of project Mercury was to determine man's capabilities in a space environment and in those environments to which he will be subject upon going into and returning from space. A few of the basic flight problems included: The development of an automatic escape system, vehicle control during insertion, behavior of space systems, evaluation of pilots capabilities in space, in flight monitoring, retrofire and reentry maneuvers and landing and recovery.