The Mercury Program was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, initiated by NASA in 1958. Its primary goal was to send a human into space and safely return them to Earth. The program aimed to gather data on human capabilities in space and to develop the necessary technology for future missions. The Mercury Program successfully launched six crewed missions between 1961 and 1963, with notable astronauts like Alan Shepard and John Glenn. The program concluded with the final flight, Mercury-Atlas 9, in May 1963, paving the way for subsequent programs like Gemini and Apollo.