EXPLORATION - What has gone before...
Project Mercury, pg 1
The movie "The Right Stuff" is a very accurate and historic accounting of the program and the men behind it. Later in the year this picture was taken I would become intimately familiar with this aircrafts avionics and weapons system. The F-106 was the primary all weather interceptor in the old USAF Air Defense Command armed with 2 AIM4 radar guided rockets, 2 AIM4 infra-red guided rockets, and something to truly mess up an invaders day - one AIR2A "Genie" 1.5 kiloton-yield nuclear missile.
Four flights followed by an Atlas launch vehicle (Glenn in Friendship 7, Carpenter in Aurora 7, Schirra in Sigma 7 and Cooper in Faith 7).
Images courtesy of NASA