ABSTRACT
The United States had been first to announce its plan to send people into orbit, and had introduced its first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, in April 1959. The American approach heavily favored the skills of the former test pilots. One of the primary guidelines for Project Mercury mandated the astronaut's ability to control the spacecraft's attitude manually. The Mercury Seven was introduced to the public by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator T. Keith Glennan on April 9, 1959. Then, at 9:34 am on May 5, 1961, Freedom 7 lifted off atop launch vehicle MR-7, the Redstone rocket. The idea of female space travelers was less of a revolutionary concept in the Soviet Union than in the United States. The flight of Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 was also part of NASA's plan to have each astronaut run through a suborbital flight prior to an orbital attempt.
