One Book, One Chicago Fall 2008
In the News
7 Men Picked to Make First Space Flight
Final Team Selected for New Project
Chicago Tribune Press Service
Washington, April 6, 1959
Seven daring young airmen have been chosen for the great adventure—American man’s first flight into space. Sometime in 1961, it is expected, one of them will step into a satellite and be hurled into orbit around the earth for a 24 hour ride. The choice of the seven, all volunteers, was announced by the National Aeronautics and Space administration on Monday. They will be known as the Mercury astronauts, since the manned satellite enterprise is called Project Mercury.
Astronauts See Roles as ‘Test Pilots’
1 Compares Job with Wright Brothers’
Chicago Tribune Press Service
Washington, D.C., September 11, 1959
Two of the seven astronauts training for a flight into outer space feel that the fantastic journey will be no more dangerous than the jobs they have performed as test pilots of new type aircraft. One thinks the flight will be “a much more reliable” deal than the Wright brothers had when they first flew a plane.
Seven U.S. Astronauts Champ at Bit to Blast Off
Final Team Selected for New Project
Associated Press
Cape Canaveral, Fla., September 16, 1960
American’s seven Mercury Astronauts are ready, eager and supremely confident as the day approaches for one of them to spin into space. Each of them wants to be first. When will that day be? “Early in 1961,” Scott Carpenter, 35, said Friday as he and his fellow spaceman trainees showed reporters around the National Aeronautics and Space Administration control building that will be the nerve center when one of them blasts off.
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