Project Mercury's man-in-space real-time computer system: "You have a go, at least seven orbits"

Project mercury was the first U.S. venture to send a man into space. The pr oject lasted 55 months, involved more than 2 million people, and cast more than $400 million. In retrospect, Project Mercury's real-time computer, pro gramming, and data-processing aspects seem a minor element of the fetal pro ject. Historical accounts of Project Mercury do not say much, if anything a bout ifs computer-based activities. These computer-based activities include the real-time computing accomplishments of a team of about 100 scientists, programmers, and engineers that paved the way for future manned-space proj ects and gave the computer profession its first glimpse of a real-time comp uting system that was predicated on the safety requirements of a man-in-the -loop. This article describes the real-time computational requirements, the procedures, and the equipment that were developed to support this pioneeri ng project, as well as some personal observations.