Mercury Astronauts

As soon as the U.S. decided to go ahead with Project Mercury, the first missile-borne man-in-space capsule (TIME, Jan. 26), the Pentagon's IBM machines began sorting through Air Force and Navy records for pilots with certain specifications. Among them: a university degree in the physical sciences or engineering, completion of military test-pilot training, a minimum of 1,500 logged hours of flight time, age less than 40, maximum height 5 ft. 11 in., superb physical condition, and physical and psychological attributes suited for space flight. Last week Keith Glennan, boss of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, announced that NASA had found no to fill the bill, that from their ranks would be chosen the first American to be shot into orbit.

Glennan dubbed the 110 men Mercury Astronauts, said that beginning this month they will go to Washington in groups of about 30 for full briefings on Project Mercury. After that, the candidates will be asked if they want to volunteer. From the volunteers, 36 will be chosen to be tested on their ability to cope with the strange stresses of space flight.

By late March the group will be thinned to an even dozen space pioneers. Then will come the training program itself--"flights"' in a centrifuge simulating conditions during high-acceleration takeoff and quick-deceleration re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, flights in Mercury capsules carried by balloons. Finally, just before the big moment comes--perhaps three or four years hence--the first space-bound Mercury Astronaut will be named. The others will be expected to try subsequent flights.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.