Liftoff of Sigma 7

Sigma 7 lifts off carrying Wally Schirra on a near-flawless six-orbit engineering test flight designed to evaluate the Mercury spacecraft's systems under a full day-long mission profile. Schirra deliberately conserved fuel and let the capsule drift for long stretches, demonstrating techniques essential for longer missions, and splashed down within five miles of the recovery ship — the most accurate landing of the Mercury program to that point.