Press Conference Introducing 7 Mercury Astronauts 1959 Part 1/3

Less than a year after NASA's birth, the agency introduced its first astronaut class, the Mercury Seven, on April 9, 1959. The press conference held in Washington that day introduced the world to a group of men who would become household names and genuine American heroes. Six of the Original Seven flew Mercury mission; Deke Slayton was grounded by a medical problem but later flew on the Apollo-Soyuz flight.

The Mercury flights proved that humans could live and work in space, and paved the way for the Gemini and Apollo programs as well as for all further human spaceflight.

For the transcript of the conference, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/50th_announcement/mercury_press_conference.pdf

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2w8cWFE1Lk
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ_FHy6nGXA

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Mercury
• Mercury 7
• NASA
• 50th Anniversary
• Spaceflight

[mathieuplaneur]

Those guys are my hereos :)

[youvebeenthunderstru]

Poor Gus Grissom. Had probably the worst luck of any astronaut. He didn't know it yet.

[numbersCH31vs17]

I had to look this up while reading John Glenn's memoir. Excellent read by the way, I highly recommend it.

[XL290]

Lots of smoking back then, real healthy living in 1959

[davmodf]

Those guys would be pissed if they knew that within 50 years the US space program and the great economy that sent men to the moon had fizzled because of corporate greed and complacency of the American people. I know I am.

[mandaFACE]

@youvebeenthunderstru :(

[Larrymh07]

Even Glenn & Carpenter smoked back then, and they were the 2 in the best physical condition. Only Cooper didn't smoke. They all more or less gave up smoking after being chosen as astronauts, but the habit still dogged some of them for quite a while, as it does most of us.

[Larrymh07]

@youvebeenthunderstru He did have his Gemini flight that went very well. It lifted the cloud of the Liberty Bell incident further off of him.

[squidoogeek]

Heehee I know why Deke Slayton has that look on his face. Alan Shepard pulled a "gotcha" on him and told him there was something on his tie. (There wasn't really.)

[squidoogeek]

@youvebeenthunderstru Yeah, he did. First his space capsule sinking on them, and then the corned beef sandwich incident, and then Apollo 1. That can really dog a guy.

[nenzi671]

Very historic & nostalgic. The press conference was a little different in the movie except for the Glenn speech. It took some guts to sit atop a nuclear missle not knowing if it would explode or fly. Thanks for posting.