Aero-Wedge.

The aero wedge was first fitted and used on the LJ1B flight, and used on all further Mercury flights. The aero wedge deflected not only any rocket blast from the jettison or escape motors from the capsule, but also helped reduce any effects of aerodynamic heating on ascent. The aero wedge was in three sections and fitted onto then Marman clamp that secured the tower to the capsule. To avoid damage to the capsules shingles during tower jettison, each of the three segments had two cables securing each to the tower.