Annie Laura Smith

Project Mercury: United States First Men-in-Space Program: 1958-1963 Annie Laura Smith

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. Though for awhile over-shadowed by the Soviet space program which beat America into space, first with Sputnik and then with the first man in space, Yuri Gargarin, it proved its worth by the end of its run in 1963.

The program's astronauts, the Mercury Seven, established the image of the American astronaut for decades to come in the United States. They were almost legendary in the minds of the public, their success in space following them into business and even politics as America's first man into orbit, John Glenn, Jr., was elected to the U. S. Senate and served for 25 years.

This book is targeted for children in school from Grades 3-7 to give them the basics of this historical program, how it started and ended, and then led to subsequent success in space, especially the Apollo Program. This background and each of the famous Mercury Seven astronauts are previewed in both text and images.