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Inscribed endpapers in the book "We Seven" (1962). Autographed by six of the seven Mercury Astronauts

The astronauts who have signed the page are Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton. Gus Grissom, who was also a Mercury astronaut, died tragically in the Apollo I Command Module on January 27, 1967 when it caught fire during a pre-launch test on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy.

 

The Mercury Seven were the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven or Astronaut Group 1. They piloted the manned spaceflights of the Mercury program from May 1961 to May 1963. Alan Shepard was the second person and the first American to travel into space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into space.

 

The story of the macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program of the Mercury astronauts and the equally fearless approach of test pilot Chuck Yeager was the basis of a book by Tom Wolfe (1979) and a movie by Philip Kaufman (1983). Both are titled “The Right Stuff.” Here is a link to the movie trailer:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak1n6qQS3_A

 

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Uploaded on April 28, 2015
Taken on April 27, 2015