Space: Mercury Seven (astronaut group)

American group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on 9 April 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven or Astronaut Group 1. They piloted the manned spaceflights of the Mercury program from May 1961 to May 1963.

These seven original American astronauts were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton.

Members of the group flew on all classes of NASA manned orbital spacecraft of the 20th century: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle.

John Glenn, who was the oldest and went on to become a U.S. senator, was the last living member of the Mercury Seven when he died in 2016 at age 95. Gus Grissom died in 1967, in the Apollo 1 fire. The others all survived past retirement from service.