Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with two goals: putting a human in orbit around the Earth, and doing it before the Soviet Union, as part of the early space race. The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, designed for NASA was the first American manned space booster. It was used for six sub-orbital Mercury flights from 1960--61; culminating with the launch of the first, and second American (and the second and third humans) in space.