Mercury Astronaut Selection Program

In addition to the technology needed to accomplish this monumental task, the other critical part to this program was the astronauts selected for the program. In order to get the right personnel for the job there needed to be a formal astronaut selection program. The astronaut selection process started when then President Eisenhower made the choice to use military test pilots so to streamline possible candidates. At this point, a NASA selection committee was formed, which consisted of a senior management engineer, a test pilot engineer, two flight surgeons, two psychologists, and two psychiatrists that analyzed dwindled down potential candidates. These military test pilots were chosen because it was thought that the conditions they would
encounter during space flight would be similar to what they had already been exposed to as test pilots. Selection started with a five phase process, the first phase being a records screening and the second consisting of an interview and testing. Once this initial phase’s was completed the potential candidates would move on to phase three which was being sent to Albuquerque New Mexico for a week worth of in-depth medical examinations. These test consisted of over 30 different laboratory tests mapping each man's body.” “Phase four of the selection program was an amazingly elaborate set of environmental studies, physical endurance tests, anthropometric measurements, and psychiatric studies conducted at the Aeromedical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center.” Once the fourth phase was complete the final phase started by sending all the data from prior phases back to Washington D.C. for the selection committees once again to analyze and a final decision made on who would make it to become an astronaut.
During the Mercury project initially over 500 records where analyzed to see who would meet the minimum requirements of phase one and two, only 110 made it through to see phase three. From here the selection committee narrowed down the list to 32 potential candidates that would move on to start the extensive medical examination in New Mexico. Only one candidate would not make it out of this phase moving 31 men to phase four at Wright Field where they were put through physical and psychological tests. Only 18 men would make it to the fifth and final phase. The selection committee from here initially was supposed to dwindle the final number down to six however; the competition was so tough they decided to go with seven. Out of this seven one was a Marine named John Glenn, There was two astronauts selected from the Navy. Walter Schirra Jr. the only astronaut to fly in missions in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Alan Shepard Jr. was the second, which ended up being the first American in space when he successfully completed a sub-orbital launch on May 5, 1961. were from the Air Force, Donald Slayton, Leroy Cooper Jr. and Virgil Grissom.
In the end, Project Mercury acted as a stepping-stone for what was to come.
This project by the time it was finished take America from just only being able to travel on the ground and air to now space in just a little over a four-year period. Using newly developed rockets like the Mercury-Redstone and the Mercury-Atlas rockets, and space capsule that had never been used before. With the objectives laid out and the technology to get America to space there needed to be someone to take up in the space capsule. The project started with a series of unmanned launches followed by three with primates aboard. Once the safety and reliability of the rocket and capsule were verified, the project was able to launch two-sub-orbital and four orbital manned missions. The men that were initially selected for this project went through rigorous tests to get selected and once finally selected where treated like modern day rock stars. The selection process itself was a first of its kind pushing men to their limits in search of the best of the best. Shortly before the end of Project Mercury was finished the next project started it was called Project Gemini. Its purpose was to prepare for a manned mission to the moon. However, Project Mercury started the United States on the right path in getting to the moon with its initial objectives of getting to
space.