Mercury astronauts
Discussion
No point.
They originally only intended to fly six Mercury missions. Therefore, they originally only intended to select six Mercury astronauts. In the end, they couldn't whittle the selection down to under seven candidates so they chose the seven. There was always a chance that one of them would miss out and Slayton was the unlucky guy.
By the time Gordon Cooper flew the last Mercury mission in 1963, planning was already underway for both Gemini and Apollo so it was decided that all future astronaut selections would be for Gemini and Apollo flights.
At that time it was expected that Gemini would fly in 1964 and 1965 and that Apollo would start flying in 1966.
They originally only intended to fly six Mercury missions. Therefore, they originally only intended to select six Mercury astronauts. In the end, they couldn't whittle the selection down to under seven candidates so they chose the seven. There was always a chance that one of them would miss out and Slayton was the unlucky guy.
By the time Gordon Cooper flew the last Mercury mission in 1963, planning was already underway for both Gemini and Apollo so it was decided that all future astronaut selections would be for Gemini and Apollo flights.
At that time it was expected that Gemini would fly in 1964 and 1965 and that Apollo would start flying in 1966.
I'll actually refine what I said above.
When the programme was launched in 1958, the plan was as follows -
six astronauts to be selected
six suborbital flights to be made using the Mercury-Redstone combination
six orbital flights, each of increasing duration, using the Mercury-Atlas combination
And all of this to happen before The Russkies managed to get a man into space.
Of course, that's not actually what happened. The Russians beat the Americans into space with Gagagrin's orbital flight in April 1961.
That meant, at one stroke, that sub-orbital Mercury flights suddenly looked a bit of an underachievement. Therefore, the plan was amended to just having two sub-orbital flights and four orbital flights.
Alan Shepard made the first sub-orbital flight in May 1961. However, with the changed launch schedule, this meant he would miss out on an orbital Mercury flight. Therefore, he lobbied hard for an unscheduled final orbital Mercury mission with him on board, of course. However, with Cooper's 1963 flight, Mercury had done everthing that was expected of it and Gemini was well under way so Shepard was denied his orbital flight.
Sadly, for Shepard, he was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (an ailment affecting the inner ear) so was grounded and missed out entirely on Gemini too.
When the programme was launched in 1958, the plan was as follows -
six astronauts to be selected
six suborbital flights to be made using the Mercury-Redstone combination
six orbital flights, each of increasing duration, using the Mercury-Atlas combination
And all of this to happen before The Russkies managed to get a man into space.
Of course, that's not actually what happened. The Russians beat the Americans into space with Gagagrin's orbital flight in April 1961.
That meant, at one stroke, that sub-orbital Mercury flights suddenly looked a bit of an underachievement. Therefore, the plan was amended to just having two sub-orbital flights and four orbital flights.
Alan Shepard made the first sub-orbital flight in May 1961. However, with the changed launch schedule, this meant he would miss out on an orbital Mercury flight. Therefore, he lobbied hard for an unscheduled final orbital Mercury mission with him on board, of course. However, with Cooper's 1963 flight, Mercury had done everthing that was expected of it and Gemini was well under way so Shepard was denied his orbital flight.
Sadly, for Shepard, he was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (an ailment affecting the inner ear) so was grounded and missed out entirely on Gemini too.
Eric Mc said:
I'll actually refine what I said above.
When the programme was launched in 1958, the plan was as follows -
six astronauts to be selected
six suborbital flights to be made using the Mercury-Redstone combination
six orbital flights, each of increasing duration, using the Mercury-Atlas combination
And all of this to happen before The Russkies managed to get a man into space.
Of course, that's not actually what happened. The Russians beat the Americans into space with Gagagrin's orbital flight in April 1961.
That meant, at one stroke, that sub-orbital Mercury flights suddenly looked a bit of an underachievement. Therefore, the plan was amended to just having two sub-orbital flights and four orbital flights.
Alan Shepard made the first sub-orbital flight in May 1961. However, with the changed launch schedule, this meant he would miss out on an orbital Mercury flight. Therefore, he lobbied hard for an unscheduled final orbital Mercury mission with him on board, of course. However, with Cooper's 1963 flight, Mercury had done everthing that was expected of it and Gemini was well under way so Shepard was denied his orbital flight.
Sadly, for Shepard, he was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (an ailment affecting the inner ear) so was grounded and missed out entirely on Gemini too.
Shepard eventually getting to the moon must have made him feel better about it though. The only Mercury guy to land there.When the programme was launched in 1958, the plan was as follows -
six astronauts to be selected
six suborbital flights to be made using the Mercury-Redstone combination
six orbital flights, each of increasing duration, using the Mercury-Atlas combination
And all of this to happen before The Russkies managed to get a man into space.
Of course, that's not actually what happened. The Russians beat the Americans into space with Gagagrin's orbital flight in April 1961.
That meant, at one stroke, that sub-orbital Mercury flights suddenly looked a bit of an underachievement. Therefore, the plan was amended to just having two sub-orbital flights and four orbital flights.
Alan Shepard made the first sub-orbital flight in May 1961. However, with the changed launch schedule, this meant he would miss out on an orbital Mercury flight. Therefore, he lobbied hard for an unscheduled final orbital Mercury mission with him on board, of course. However, with Cooper's 1963 flight, Mercury had done everthing that was expected of it and Gemini was well under way so Shepard was denied his orbital flight.
Sadly, for Shepard, he was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (an ailment affecting the inner ear) so was grounded and missed out entirely on Gemini too.
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