As a part of the first U.S. human spaceflight program, Project Mercury, this capsule was launched on unmanned mission, Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2), on February 21, 1961. Mission objectives were to test spacecraft performance during maximum acceleration, and to measure the heat on the spacecraft following a simulated critical abort in which the spacecraft separated itself from the Atlas launch vehicle before reaching orbit.

The spacecraft did not go into orbit, but rather flew on an 18-minute suborbital mission that reached a maximum altitude of 182 km (114 miles), and landed 2290 km (1432 miles) downrange. This success helped to pave the way for the first American manned space launch on May 5, 1961, on the Redstone booster. In 1967 NASA transferred title of the spacecraft to the Smithsonian.