These NASA missions were not only a steppingstone to the Moon, but influenced many aspects of the way humans still travel ...

It is 66 years since the 'Mercury Seven', NASA's first astronauts. On April 9, 1959, NASA unveiled the seven astronauts who would be part of the historic Mercury Project, a pioneer ...

This timeline highlights key manned and unmanned missions and tests of NASA’s Project Mercury. The primary objectives were to orbit a manned space vessel around Earth, investigate human ability ...

Here’s a look at human spaceflight programs in the United States and around the world. Facts The United States ended its crewed space shuttle program with the launch of Atlantis on July 8, 2011, and ...

But back at the beginning of America's space program, it looked like just about anybody could have done the job--and the overqualified men tasked to fly Project Mercury knew it. "I initially said ...

As part of Project Mercury, NASA prepared to send a chimpanzee, Ham, into space to test the effects of space on a living creature. Explore Subscribe Newsletters Content Licensing Our Partners ...

only one American had been in space and much remained to be done. NASA had not yet put a man in orbit around the Earth. That would happen during the successive one-man missions of Project Mercury.