Above: Note lack of the extra plates at base of rocket. Also note
the two probes at the top of the escape motor and teh black bars on the escape rocket
motor. The orange at the top of
the booster adaptor goes down deeper, more than LJ-1. These features uniquely identify
the LJ-1A mission compared to the very similar looking LJ-1.
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These images were found on the NASA Langley web site, but they were not clearly identified. Note how the capule separates at the boundary between the smooth white area and the ribbed upper section. This is apparently how they got the chimps in, like the LJ-1B mission.
While I have no positive identification on the pictures, the orange and white pattern matches only LJ-1 and LJ-1A. But LJ-1's capsule fell into the ocean without the chute deploying. I don't know how badly it was damaged, but this capsule looks like it went through a fairly benign recovery, so my guess is this is the LJ-1A capsule.
This page created Oct. 11, 1999.