To those, that have "Slipped the surly bonds of Earth".
Wally Schirra was a member of a truly "elite" club. He and the other "First 7", paved the way for others to follow. He will be missed.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 82ndtrooper
I'll take a stab at my own question:
Mercury Seven:
1: Alan Shepard
2: John Glenn
3. Virgil "Gus" Grissom
4. Scott Carpenter
5. Gordan "Gordo" Cooper
6. Walter "Wally" Schirra Jr
7. Deke Slayton (dont know his first name) Proof that I didn't use google 
I believe they were also referred to as "Astronaut 1"
I tried to get them in order of their flight schedule, but I may need correction on that.
I believe perhaps Scott Carpenter went after Gordo Cooper. Grissum lived the rest of his life with the "Blown Hatch" legacy. Never the less a hero in my world. |
Order of flight for the Mercury....
1) Alan Shepard....his flight lasted only 15 minutes and was only sub orbital. He did not fly again until Apollo 14, to which he played golf on the Moon.
2) Gus Grissom....his flight was like Shepard's, lasting only 15 minutes, but he was know for the "blown hatch" SNAFU, He flew Gemini and was killed in Apollo 1 on the pad, during a "Plugs Out Test" in a flash Fire in the capsule.
3) John Glenn.....was supposed to orbit the Earth 7 times, but only made 3 orbits because of a warning light saying that his heat shield had failed. He did not fly again until he flew on one of the STS missions.
4) Scott Carpenter....was the first to orbit the Earth 6 times, in a nearly flawless flight.
5) Wally Schirra.....Again made a nearly flawless flight, and flew the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
6) Gordo Cooper.....the "Hot Dog". At that time flew father and faster than any person alive.
Deke Slayton never flew in space due to medical problems, but NASA couldn't drop him, because of his "fame and notoriety" of being one of the "Mercury 7". He stay with NASA and worked as the "Flight Coordinator" for all missions. Assigning which astronaut flew, what mission and with whom.
Aside from
The Right Stuff, another good NASA show/movie/mini-series to watch is
From The Earth To The Moon. It's a 12 part mini series produced by Tom Hanks, for HBO, but is available on DVD.
I was lucky enough to work on all 12 episodes while they filmed in Orlando and on the KSC/Cape Canaveral. The technical advisor was Dave Scott. He flew with Neal Armstrong on a Gemini mission and was "lost at sea" for several hours, when they splashed down. He also flew Apollo 15, and was the first person to "drive" on the Moon.
Here's a pic of me, (I'm in the front row, 2nd from the right....those hats itched
), while we were filming on KSC. That is the actual LEM form Apollo 18. Hanks brought it down from the Smithsonian for this episode. There were still a lot of people that worked at NASA, that actually worked on this space craft. It was fun talking to them and hearing their, "Yeah I worked on that baby" stories.