what were the first three manned space programs in the united states
Project Mercury (USA, 1959-1963) Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on 20 February 1962 was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal.
The Mercury and Gemini programs were the early U.S. efforts in human spaceflight and they were spectacular successes: May 1961: American astronaut Alan Shepard went briefly into space, but not into orbit, on the Mercury 3 mission. February 1962: Astronaut John Glenn spent five hours in orbit on the Mercury 6 mission.
Apollo was the third human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA, the space agency of the United States. It used Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicles, which were later used for the Skylab program and the joint American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.