How was one of the Mercury Seven who later became NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office?
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Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven Mercury astronauts announced 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. These seven original American astronauts were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.
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Deke Slayton Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993), (Major, USAF) was an American World War II pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, and became NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office.
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Mercury-Atlas 8 Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) was the fifth United States manned space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was the longest U.S. manned orbital flight yet achieved in the Space Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury spacecraft's durability ahead of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that followed in 1963.
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1986 in spaceflight The year 1986 saw the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off, killing all seven aboard, the first in-flight deaths of American astronauts. This accident followed the successful flight of Columbia just weeks earlier, and dealt a major setback to the U.S. manned space program, suspending the Shuttle program for 32 months.
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STS-80 STS-80 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle "Columbia". The launch was originally scheduled for 31 October 1996, but was delayed to 19 November for several reasons. Likewise, the landing, which was originally scheduled for 5 December, was pushed back to 7 December after bad weather prevented landing for two days. The mission was the longest Shuttle mission ever flown at 17 days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes. Although two spacewalks were planned for the mission, they were both canceled after problems with the airlock hatch prevented astronauts Tom Jones and Tammy Jernigan from exiting the orbiter.
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Bernice Steadman Bernice Steadman (1925 – March 18, 2015) was an American professional aviator and businesswoman. Steadman was one of thirteen women chosen to train as astronauts during the early 1960s. The group later became known as the Mercury 13. However, Steadman and the other twelve women in the program were denied the opportunity to become astronauts due to their gender. Steadman, a professional pilot, later co-founded the International Women's Air & Space Museum in Ohio during the 1980s.
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Frank Borman Frank Frederick Borman II (born March 14, 1928), (Col, USAF, Ret.), is a retired United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. Before flying on Apollo, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7, and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire. After leaving NASA, he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eastern Air Lines from 1975 to 1986. Borman is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
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Michael Coats Michael Lloyd Coats (born January 16, 1946 in Sacramento, California) is a former NASA astronaut (three spaceflights), raised in Riverside, California. From December 2005 to December 2012, he served as Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
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Mercury-Redstone 2 Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) was the penultimate test flight of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle prior to the first manned American space mission in Project Mercury. It was launched at 16:55 UTC on January 31, 1961 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mercury spacecraft No. 5 carried Ham the Chimp, a chimpanzee, on a suborbital flight, landing in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds after launch.
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Richard F. Gordon Jr. Richard Francis "Dick" Gordon Jr. (born October 5, 1929), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is a former American naval officer and aviator, chemist, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, as the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 12 mission.
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1966 NASA T-38 crash The 1966 NASA T-38 crash occurred when a NASA Northrop T-38 Talon crashed at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 28, 1966, killing two Project Gemini astronauts, Elliot See and Charles Bassett. The aircraft, piloted by See, crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft building where their "Gemini 9" spacecraft was being assembled. The weather was poor with rain, snow, fog, and low clouds. A NASA panel, headed by the Chief of the Astronaut Office, Alan Shepard, investigated the crash. While the panel considered possible medical issues or aircraft maintenance problems, in addition to the weather and air traffic control factors, the end verdict was that the crash was caused by pilot error.
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Charles Bassett Charles Arthur "Charlie" Bassett II (December 30, 1931 – February 28, 1966), (Capt, USAF), was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and assigned to "Gemini 9", but died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight.
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Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module "Eagle" on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours after landing on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC; Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 lb of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Michael Collins piloted the command module "Columbia" alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent just under a day on the lunar surface before rejoining "Columbia" in lunar orbit.
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Anthony W. England Anthony Wayne England (born May 15, 1942), better known as Tony England, is an American, former NASA astronaut. Selected in 1967, England was among a group of astronauts who served as backups during the Apollo and Skylab programs. Like most others in his class, he flew during the Space Shuttle program, serving as a mission specialist on STS-51F in 1985. He has logged more than 3,000 hours of flying time and 188 hours in space.
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Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Christopher Columbus "Chris" Kraft Jr. (born February 28, 1924) is an American aerospace engineer and retired NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control operation. Following his graduation from Virginia Tech in 1944, Kraft was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor organization to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as America's first manned spaceflight, first manned orbital flight, and first spacewalk.
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Charles Bolden Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946) is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former NASA astronaut.
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Michael Huerta Michael Peter Huerta (born November 18, 1956) is the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. He was sworn into office on January 7, 2013, for a five-year term and is responsible for the safety and efficiency of the largest aerospace system in the world. He oversees a $15.9 billion budget and more than 47,000 employees.
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STS-41-G STS-41-G was the 13th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle "Challenger". "Challenger" launched on 5 October 1984, and conducted the second shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center on 13 October. It was the first shuttle mission to carry a crew of seven, including the first crew with two women (Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan), the first American EVA involving a woman (Sullivan), the first Australian-born person to journey into space and the first astronaut with a beard (Paul Scully-Power) and the first Canadian astronaut (Marc Garneau).
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Michael E. Fossum Michael Edward Fossum (born December 19, 1957 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is a former American astronaut and the Chief Operating Officer of Texas A&M University at Galveston. He flew into space on board the NASA Space Shuttle missions STS-121 and STS-124 and served as a mission specialist of Expedition 28 and commander of Expedition 29 aboard the International Space Station.
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James Irwin James Benson "Jim" Irwin (March 17, 1930 – August 8, 1991) (Col, USAF) was an American astronaut, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. He served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing. He was the eighth person to walk on the Moon and the first, and youngest, of those astronauts to die.
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NASA Astronaut Group 12 NASA's Astronaut Group 12 (the GAFFers) was announced by NASA on 5 June 1987.
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Mike Mullane Richard Michael "Mike" Mullane (born September 10, 1945) is an engineer, a retired USAF officer and a former NASA astronaut, flying on three Space Shuttle missions.