NASA’s Mercury 7 were America’s first astronaut group
In 1959 NASA introduced seven military test pilots — the Mercury 7 — as the nation’s first astronaut class for Project Mercury.
They trained in centrifuges, simulators, and survival courses while competing for early flight seats. Their faces filled magazines and made spaceflight a celebrity story.
A public astronaut corps was invented almost overnight. The Mercury 7 turned rocket testing into a human brand America could follow.
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