Who Were the Mercury Astronauts?
NASA selected seven astronauts for Project Mercury in 1959. Choosing the astronauts was one of the first things NASA did. The agency was only six months old when it chose them. Alan Shepard made the first Mercury flight. That flight made him the first American in space. The 15-minute flight went into space and came back down. His Mercury capsule was named Freedom 7. Years later, Shepard walked on the moon as commander of the Apollo 14 mission.
