On April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) introduced America’s first
astronauts to the press: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon
Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil “Gus” Grissom,
Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr. and Donald Slayton.

The seven men, all military test pilots, were carefully
selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in
Project Mercury, America’s first manned space program,
planned to begin orbital flights in 1961.         
    
    
    
    
    

From Top Left: Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, L.
Gordon Cooper
Bottom Left: Wally Schirra, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John
Glenn and Scott Carpenter.

On April 8, 1993, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from
the Kennedy Space Center. On board was astronaut Ellen
Ochoa, soon to become the first Hispanic woman in space.

Ochoa started at NASA in 1988 after receiving a doctorate
in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Two
years later, she was selected as an astronaut.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who
commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon
landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday
in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home.

Stafford, a retired Air Force three-star general, took part in
four space missions. Before Apollo 10, he flew on two Gemini
flights, including the first rendezvous of two U.S. capsules in
orbit.

Stafford was one of 24 NASA astronauts who flew to the moon,
but he did not land on it. Only seven of them are still alive.

ASTRONAUT THOMAS P. STAFFORD DURING GEMINI 9 MISSION.

While in orbit 170 miles above Earth, Navy Captain Bruce
McCandless II became the first human being to perform
an untethered spacewalk, when he exits the U.S. space
shuttle Challenger and maneuvers freely, using a bulky
white jet pack of his own design.

McCandless orbited Earth in tangent with the shuttle at
speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour—the speed
at which satellites normally orbit Earth—and flew up to
320 feet away from the Challenger. After an hour and a
half of testing and flying the jet-powered backpack and
admiring Earth, McCandless safely reentered the shuttle.

Bruce McCandless II
(June 8, 1937 – December 21, 2017)