On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its very first astronaut class.
This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury 7. They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job, and they had all "the right stuff" to take on such risky missions. But in a way, they essentially became guinea pigs for NASA's new human spaceflight program, because they didn't get to do much piloting inside the Mercury spacecraft. Some of the pilots weren't too happy about this. But the rest of the country paid no attention to that, and the Mercury 7 instantly became national heroes. In 1961, Al Shepard became the first American to fly to space, followed by Gus Grissom. Then in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. After that, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper all completed orbital missions as well.
This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury 7. They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job, and they had all "the right stuff" to take on such risky missions. But in a way, they essentially became guinea pigs for NASA's new human spaceflight program, because they didn't get to do much piloting inside the Mercury spacecraft. Some of the pilots weren't too happy about this. But the rest of the country paid no attention to that, and the Mercury 7 instantly became national heroes. In 1961, Al Shepard became the first American to fly to space, followed by Gus Grissom. Then in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. After that, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper all completed orbital missions as well.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space. On April 9th, 1959, NASA introduced its very first astronaut class.
00:08This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury Seven.
00:11They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job,
00:14and they all had the right stuff to take on such risky missions.
00:18But in a way, they essentially became guinea pigs for NASA's new human spaceflight program
00:22because they didn't get to do much piloting in the Mercury spacecraft.
00:25Some of the pilots weren't too happy about this, but the rest of the country paid no attention to that,
00:30and the Mercury Seven instantly became national heroes.
00:33In 1961, Al Shepard became the first American to fly to space, followed by Gus Grissom.
00:39Then in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
00:43After that, Scott Carpenter, Wally Shira, and Gordon Cooper all completed orbital missions as well.
00:48And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:55The World War II
01:11Fired Race