what was the name of the first unmanned space capsule in u.s. history?

Answer 1

This is what I could find:

The U.S. began its Mercury program with an unmanned 18 minute flight on January 31, 1961 that carried Ham the chimpanzee.

Answer 2

The first U.S. satellite was explorer 1. I would not call that a capsule though. There were unmanned flights of the Mercury capsule before Alan Shepard flew in one to became the first American in space. That was a capsule.

Answer 3

Sputnik was the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. This one was Russian.
In response to Sputnik, the U.S. would launch a huge effort to regain technological supremacy, including revamping the school curricula. It took the Russian achievement of lifting into space a 184 pound communications satellite -- followed within a month by sending up a half ton rocket carrying a live dog -- to arouse the United States to large-scale legislative action.
Nearly four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer I.
The first animal sent into orbit, the dog Laika (in English, "Barker"), traveled in the USSR's Sputnik 2 in 1957.
The American space program imported chimpanzees from Africa, and sent at least two into space before launching their first human orbiter.
The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he entered orbit in Russia's Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961.
Following the Soviet success in placing the first satellite into orbit, the Americans focused their efforts on sending a probe to the Moon. They called the first attempt to do this the Pioneer program. The Soviet Luna program became operational with the launch of Luna 1 on January 4, 1959, and Luna 1 became the first probe to reach the vicinity of the Moon. The first craft to land on the Moon was Luna 2 launched on September 12, 1959. In addition to the Pioneer program, there were three specific American programs: the Ranger program, the Lunar Orbiter program, and the robotic Surveyor program, with the goal of locating potential Apollo landing sites on the Moon. They were successful.
I probably gave you too much info. However, the correct answer would depend on what you mean by spcae capsule. So you pick the answer.
You might want to consider this one:
Big Joe 1
Crew: Unmanned
Altitude: 95 statute miles
Orbits: 0
Duration: 0 Days, 0 hours, 13 min, 0 seconds
Distance: 1,496 statute miles
Max Velocity: 14,857 mph
Max Q: 675 psf
Max G: 12
Launch: September 9, 1959, 3:19am EST. Cape Canaveral, FL

Answer 4

McDonnell Mercury capsule

Answer 5

Mercury