High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mercury-Redstone 4 was the second United States manned space mission, launched on July 21, 1961. The Mercury program suborbital flight used a Redstone rocket. The spacecraft was named Liberty Bell 7 piloted by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. It reached an altitude of more than 118.26 mi (190.32 km) and traveled about 300 mi (480 km). The Redstone was MRLV-8 and the spacecraft was Mercury spacecraft #11, the first with a centerline window instead of two portholes.