WOOO HOOO!.. I happen to be related to Alan Shepard and have a Freedom 7 patch prominently displayed in my 'Office'.. Derek The first 7 US astronauts were selected to the Mercury Project. Only 2 are still alive. From Wikipedia: The first Americans to venture into space were drawn from a group of 110 military pilots chosen for their flight test experience and because they met certain physical requirements. NASA announced the selection of seven of these - known as the Mercury Seven - as astronauts on 9 April 1959, though only six of the seven flew Mercury missions, after Slayton was grounded due to a heart condition. * Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN (1925-) ALIVE * Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr., USAF (1927-2004) * John Herschel Glenn, Jr., USMC (1921-) First American to orbit the earth. ALIVE * Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, USAF (1926-1967) Died during Apollo 1 Pre-Launch Test * Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr., USN (1923-2007) * Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., USN (1923-1998) First American in space. * Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton, USAF (1924-1993) Grounded in 1962 due to irregular heartbeat, reinstated in 1972 and later flew on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Beginning with Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight, the astronauts named their own spacecraft, and all added "7" to the name to acknowledge the teamwork of their fellow astronauts. I had the great honor to meet and interview John Glenn in 1988 at the Kennedy Space Center prior to the launch of STS-26; the first shuttle launch after the Challenger accident.-- joe rao ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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