The program to pick thefirst man to American to try to pilot a rocket into orbit in space...
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The program to pick the
first man to American to try to pilot a rocket into orbit in space has begun. U.S. space chief T. Keith Glennan
announced tonight the American manned satellite program
will be called Project Mercury, its pilots will be known as
Mercury Aeronauts, and one of their number, all volunteers, will make the first spaceflight. Two months before the astronauts
were chosen they were still considering using racing car drivers,
mountain climbers, scuba divers, infantry men, anybody who had faced
stress and dangerous situations successfully would be allowed
to apply for astronaut because there wasn't any flying
to be done. Finally, Eisenhower decided,
"Well, hell, we've got 500 test pilots "in the military. We can call them
to Washington tomorrow." So let's get them from this
group of people we can totally control and get on with it. So they bring in these test pilots
first man to American to try to pilot a rocket into orbit in space has begun. U.S. space chief T. Keith Glennan
announced tonight the American manned satellite program
will be called Project Mercury, its pilots will be known as
Mercury Aeronauts, and one of their number, all volunteers, will make the first spaceflight. Two months before the astronauts
were chosen they were still considering using racing car drivers,
mountain climbers, scuba divers, infantry men, anybody who had faced
stress and dangerous situations successfully would be allowed
to apply for astronaut because there wasn't any flying
to be done. Finally, Eisenhower decided,
"Well, hell, we've got 500 test pilots "in the military. We can call them
to Washington tomorrow." So let's get them from this
group of people we can totally control and get on with it. So they bring in these test pilots
Full Transcript
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.586
The program to pick the
first man to American to try to pilot
00:00:03.067 --> 00:00:05.088
a rocket into orbit in space has begun.
00:00:06.214 --> 00:00:08.883
U.S. space chief T. Keith Glennan
announced tonight
00:00:08.967 --> 00:00:12.429
the American manned satellite program
will be called Project Mercury,
00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:15.064
its pilots will be known as
Mercury Aeronauts,
00:00:15.723 --> 00:00:17.434
and one of their number, all volunteers,
00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:18.935
will make the first spaceflight.
00:00:20.645 --> 00:00:23.485
Two months before the astronauts
were chosen they were still considering
00:00:23.572 --> 00:00:26.867
using racing car drivers,
mountain climbers, scuba divers,
00:00:27.318 --> 00:00:31.322
infantry men, anybody who had faced
stress and dangerous situations
00:00:31.406 --> 00:00:33.095
successfully would be allowed
to apply for astronaut
00:00:34.003 --> 00:00:35.755
because there wasn't any flying
to be done.
00:00:38.121 --> 00:00:41.458
Finally, Eisenhower decided,
"Well, hell, we've got 500 test pilots
00:00:41.583 --> 00:00:44.502
"in the military. We can call them
to Washington tomorrow."
00:00:46.212 --> 00:00:48.812
So let's get them from this
group of people we can totally control
00:00:48.084 --> 00:00:49.966
and get on with it.
00:00:51.176 --> 00:00:52.076
So they bring in these test pilots.
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Movie Summary
Follow the story of the first American astronauts in space in this National Geographic documentary.
