Mercury Seven
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This was the only time the seven astronauts would appear together in pressure suits.[1] Note that Slayton and Glenn are wearing work boots that were spray-painted.
The Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts picked by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. This was the only astronaut group with members that flew on all classes of NASA manned spacecraft of the 20th century, from Mercury, through Gemini and Apollo, and ending with John Glenn's flight on the STS-95 Space Shuttle mission.
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[edit] Selection process
President Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted that all candidates be test pilots with college degrees. Because of the small space inside the Mercury capsule, candidates could be no taller than 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) and weigh no more than 180 pounds (82 kg).[2]
NASA identified 69 candidates and brought them to Washington, DC for extensive physical and mental exams. Six candidates were rejected as too tall for the planned spacecraft. Another 33 failed or dropped out during the first phase of exams. Four more refused to partake in the second round of tests which included spending hours on treadmills and tilt tables and submerging their feet in ice water. The second phase of testing eliminated eight more candidates, leaving 18. From that group of 18, the first seven NASA Astronauts were chosen.[3]
The astronauts wrote first-hand accounts of their selection and preparation for the Mercury missions in the 1962 book We Seven. In 1979 Tom Wolfe published a less sanitized version of their story in The Right Stuff. Wolfe's book was the basis for the popular film directed by Philip Kaufman.
[edit] Group members
- M. Scott Carpenter (1925 - )
- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr (1927 - 2004)
- John H. Glenn, Jr (1921 - )
- Virgil I. Grissom (1926 - 1967)
- Walter M. Schirra (1923 - 2007)
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr (1923 - 1998)
- Donald K. Slayton (1924-1993)
[edit] References
- ^ Slayton, Donald K.; Cassutt, Michael (1994). Deke!. New York: Forge, 87. ISBN 0312-85918-X.
- ^ Slayton, Donald K.; Alan Shepard, Jay Barbree, Howard Beneduict (1994). Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. Turner Publishing. ISBN 1-57036-167-3.
- ^ Carmichael, Mary (Nov-Dec 2007). "Actually, It Is Rocket Science: NASA's Brilliant, Far-Out History". Mental_Floss 6 (6): 42.
[edit] See also
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