Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) was launched at 13:13 UTC on July 29, 1960 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system. The mission was to conduct a suborbital test flight and reentry of the spacecraft. The capsule had live posigrade separation rockets, but dummy retro rockets.

The Atlas rocket suffered a structural failure 58 seconds after launch. The vehicle at that time was at approximately an altitude of 30,000 feet (9.1 km) and 11,000 feet (3.4 km) down range. The rocket suffered a failure near where the spacecraft adapter attaches to the Atlas. The rocket and capsule hit the Atlantic Ocean, broke up and sank. The capsule and portions of the rocket were recovered from the ocean bottom and reconstructed for study.

The capsule reached an apogee of 13 km and flew 9.6 km downrange. The flight lasted 3 minutes and 18 seconds. Capsule weight 1,154 kg. Serial numbers: Atlas 50-D, Mercury spacecraft #4.

Pieces of Mercury spacecraft # 4, used in the Mercury-Atlas 1 mission, are currently displayed at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Centre, Hutchinson,Kansas