Project Mercury was America's baby steps toward the stars. It was during this program that the first American went into space. It was also during this program that the first American orbited the earth. Project Mercury used two different launch vehicles, the Redstone and the Atlas. The Redstone was a rocket based off the Redstone ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), and the purpose was to simply send someone into space, and immediately come down again. The second, Atlas, was also derived from an ICBM, Atlas. The purpose of Atlas was to not only go in to space, but to orbit the earth.