What Branch Of Service Were America's First 7 Astronauts

The Mercury 7 were America'southward beginning form of astronauts. The class of 1959 was tasked with a monumental endeavor – be the commencement American astronauts to travel into space.

Project Mercury

Project Mercury, NASA'south offset crewed space programme, aimed to attain NASA's plan to send the first astronauts into space.

The objectives of Projection Mercury included:

Orbiting a crewed spacecraft around the Earth
Investigating human being performance in infinite
Safely returning and recovering both crew and capsule

Project Mercury'due south objectives might seem relatively easy by today's standards, just at that fourth dimension, they posed quite the challenge.

The new agency needed astronauts for this daring endeavour. Following extensive testing, seven astronauts were selected from a grouping of over 500 candidates for the Mercury programme.

The Mercury 7

Apr ix, 1959, NASA held a press conference in Washington D.C. to innovate the first astronaut form to America and the world.

M. Scott Carpenter, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr., L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, and John H. Glenn Jr, became America's offset astronauts. The "Mercury 7" or "Original Seven" as they were frequently referred to, were all military test pilots.

The agency believed these astronauts had the "correct stuff" to accomplish Project Mercury'south objectives.

Perchance one of the more notable moments in the conference occurred when the astronauts were asked, "Who wants to be the kickoff man launched into space?" All of them raised their hands!

Accept a trip back in fourth dimension and spotter part of this celebrated news conference below.

Project Mercury sent a total of six crewed flights, with 6 of the "Original Seven" astronauts flying a mission.

Deke Slayton was the merely member of the grouping who did not get to wing. This was due to a center condition that was discovered simply months after the printing briefing. Many years later, he was cleared and restored to total flight status. He eventually journeyed into space as the Apollo docking module airplane pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Projection (ASTP) in 1975.

61 years agone, today, America learned the names of its first astronauts. These brave men would lay the foundation for all future spaceflight missions. They carried the hopes and dreams of a nation every bit they prepared to exit Earth for infinite.

Learn more about NASA's offset astronaut class and Project Mercury by watching the NASA documentary beneath!