On October 7, 1958, the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced Project Mercury, its first major undertaking. The goals were threefold: to place a manned spacecraft into orbit around Earth, to observe human performance in such conditions, and to safely recover the human and spacecraft. At this early stage in the US space program, many questions remained unanswered. Could a human skillfully act as a pilot, engineer, and experimenter in the harsh conditions of zero-gravity flight? If so, who were the right people for the challenge?
The selection process for the Mercury program was led by a NASA selection committee. The committee quickly realized that the unusual conditions of spaceflight were similar to those experienced by military test pilots. In January 1959, the committee received and examined 508 service records of talented test pilots, from which 110 candidates were selected. Less than a month later, the NASA selection committee whittled this group down to 32 candidates through a series of interviews and a series of written tests.
Each candidate endured even more rigorous physical, psychological and mental examinations, including full-body X-rays, pressure suit tests, cognitive exercises and a series of nerve-wracking interviews. Of the 32 candidates, 18 were recommended for Project Mercury without any medical concerns. On April 1, 1959, Robert Gilruth, the head of the Space Task Group, and Donlan, North and White selected the first American astronauts. The “Mercury Seven” were:
Lt. Commander |
Alan Bartlett „Al“ Shepard, Jr. |
* November 18, 1923 |
† July 21, 1998 |
Navy |
Captain |
Donald Kent „Deke“ Slayton |
* March 1, 1924 |
† June 13, 1993 |
Air Force |
Lt. Colonel |
John Herschel Glenn Jr. |
* July 18, 1921 |
† December 8, 2016 |
Marines |
Captain |
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. |
* March 6, 1927 |
† October 4, 2004 |
Air Force |
Lieutenant |
Malcolm Scott Carpenter |
* May 1, 1925 |
† October 10, 2013 |
Navy |
Captain |
Virgil Ivan „Gus“ Grissom |
* April 3, 1926 |
† January 27, 1967 |
Air Force |
Lt. Commander |
Walter Marty „Wally“ Schirra Jr. |
* March 12, 1923 |
† May 3, 2007 |
Navy |
All of the “Mercury Seven” eventually flew into space. They piloted the six Mercury program space flights that carried an astronaut from May 1961 to May 1963, and members of the group flew on all of NASA’s 20th century manned spaceflight programs – Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle.
Shepard became the first American to fly into space in 1961 and walked on the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971. Grissom flew the first manned Gemini mission in 1965, but died in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967. The other Mercury astronauts all survived their retirement. Schirra flew Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, in Grissom’s place in 1968. Slayton, grounded by atrial fibrillation, eventually flew on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. The first American in orbit in 1962, Glenn flew on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 and, at 77, became the oldest person ever to fly into Earth’s orbit. He was the last living member of the “Mercury Seven” when he died in 2016 at the age of 95.