DAVID MELENDY

            
SANDY KOZEL

The space shuttle Columbia was launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel
into space.

Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia undertook a 54-hour space flight of 36 orbits before successfully touching down at California’s Edwards Air Force
Base on April 14.

Young and Crippen.

TIM MAGUIRE

Group photo of the Mercury 7 astronauts at their first
public appearance in April 1959: Walter M. Schirra,
left, Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Donald
K. “Deke”Slayton, John H. Glenn, M. Scott Carpenter,
and L. Gordon Cooper.           

        
        
        
       
On April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) formally introduced America’s
first astronauts to the press in Washington, D.C..
   

The seven men, all military test pilots, were
carefully selected  from a group of 32
candidates to take part in Project Mercury.
 

    
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