Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Estes Mercury Capsule



From the 1964 Estes catalog:











This picture is from a recent Ebay "Lot" listing.
I'd never seen the capsule before. The printed graphics weren't much!
It's missing the rear balsa "heat shield" adapter.

From the Semroc repro kit instructions:
"The Estes Mercury Capsule was released in the 1963 catalog and was sold for many years. It was not a true scale of the Mercury Capsule, but was a fun addition to an “experienced” rocket to have a nose cone and payload section that was a little different.
The Mercury Capsule was introduced as Catalog #PSM-1 for $1.00."

The larger, low card stock shroud area was hollow and could be used as a payload section. The shroud was held in place with pins that went through the shroud and into the low balsa adapter.
A rear reduction shroud could fit the body tubes available in the early 1960s.

2 comments:

  1. Are you have a link to Vostok spacecraft but not the voskhod one

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    1. Hi Unknown,
      Sorry no, I don't know very much about the Vostok program. The only build I did was the (underpowered) MPC Vostok: https://www.redtube.com/1780946?utm_source=paid&utm_medium=hubtraffic&utm_campaign=hubtraffic_tubegals

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