Project Mercury

In the late 1950s, the U. S. government began planning a space program. Officials looked for test pilots with at least 1,500 hours of flight experience, a college degree, and certain physical requirements. Glenn was one of 110 mil­itary officers who met these standards. After interviews and tests, he was one of only seven to be named to the first U. S. space program, Project Mercury.

Training began in early 1959 and continued for two years. Early in 1961, officials chose Alan Shepard, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and John Glenn as the candidates for the first flights. The plan called for the astronauts to fly brief sub­orbital missions (suborbital flights go to very high altitudes, but do not go into orbit). At first they simply would be launched into space and return to Earth. Later, they would be sent on orbital flights, during which they would travel around the planet.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union announced that it had launched Yuri Gagarin into space and that he had orbited the Earth once. U. S. leaders were bitterly disappointed by the Soviets claiming the first such success. They quickly followed Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight by sending Shepard into space. But while Gagarin had orbited Earth, Shepard just went up and came back down again. The Soviet achievement was much greater.

American frustration increased later in 1961. Grissom took a suborbital flight in July, but in August the Soviet pilot,

Gherman Titov orbited Earth for an entire day, circling the planet seventeen times. In view of this success, NASA officials dropped plans for any more suborbital flights.