Comes framed with picture of the Mercury Atlas - 1

#0015/1960

The shingle is made of Rene 41, an alloy containing nickel, chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, titanium, as well as several other metals.

Certified by Century Concept International in 2014.  Signed by Edward Humphreys

The following is what is written on the back of the frame:

MERCURY ATLAS - 1

Flown Spacecraft Shingle

Mercury Atlas-1 (MA-1) was launched at 8:13 pam on July 29, 1960 from Launch Complex 14.  Cape Canaveral, Florida.  The Mercury spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system.  The mission was to be the first launch of a production Mercury spacecraft in a suborbital test flight to confirm the structural integrity of the spacecraft and the performance of the afterbody shingles.

The Atlas rocket suffered a structural failure 58.5 seconds after launch.  At the time of the failure the vehicle  was at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet (5.65 miles) and was 11,000 feet (2.11 miles) down range.  The failure occurred near the spacecraft adapter section.  The rocket and spacecraft hit the Atlantic Ocean, broke up and sank.  The spacecraft and protions of the rocket were recovered from the ocean bottom and reconstructed to determine the cause of the failure.

The spacecraft reached an apogee of 8.07 miles and flew 5.96 miles downrange.  The flight lasted 3 minutes and 18 seconds.  MA-1 flight components included Atlas 50-D and Mercury spacecraft #4.

Thanks for looking.