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Author
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Topic: Mercury astronaut selection: Letter coded names
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History Discussion
Member Posts: 15
From: Bay Area, California
Registered: Feb 2015
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posted 04-23-2015 04:37 AM
   
There is a 1959 NASA document that describes the selection process that the first astronaut candidates went through. In the end, seven finalists were chosen as astronauts and in this document, the astronauts are not identified by name but rather by letter code.Has anyone made an effort to decipher the letter codes to determine which letter code corresponds to each of the Original 7? |
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Member Posts: 891
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 04-23-2015 07:10 AM
Can you provide a link to this document? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-23-2015 07:24 AM
I believe the document being referred to is WADC Technical Report 59-505, "Project Mercury Candidate Evaluation Program" by Capt. Charles Wilson of the Aerospace Medical Laboratory.Per an earlier discussion here, the 31 semifinalists for the 1959 selection were assigned a candidate letter, A to EE. The seven "outstanding candidates without reservations" were identified by the letter codes: G, L, K, S, U, Z and EE. According to Kris Stoever, Scott Carpenter was "K" and John Glenn was "EE." |
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Member Posts: 891
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 04-23-2015 02:05 PM
Thanks Robert, that is a fascinating document and the previous discussion to which you gave us the link was very interesting too. Somewhere, in some forgotten file is a list relating names, some of which we all know, to the A thru EE designations. |
taneal1
Member Posts: 237
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 04-28-2015 04:58 PM
From a reading of the above document, in my opinion: - G Shepard
- L Solliday (not selected)
- K Carpenter
- S Cooper
- U Slayton
- Z Grissom
- EE Glenn
- R Schirra
To be blunt, I don't believe the selection committee re the astronauts service affiliations.From an unequal number of USAF/USN candidates, they chose 32 finalists: Two USMC, 15 USAF and 15 USN. Of the seven: three USAF, three USN and one USMC. USAF and USN were equal in number. In my opinion, this is why seven Mercury astronauts were chosen, rather than the six they had planned, i.e. to include the USMC, and to balance USN v. USAF. NASA was taken to task for forgetting to include the Marines in the initial selection process. Glenn was an excellent candidate, but if he had failed the medical, I'm certain Solliday would have been "the Marine." The first three to fly: USN, USAF, USMC. All service branches got to fly once before any service flew twice. Glenn backed up Shepard and Grissom. These three were labelled by Life magazine as "The First Team." If a different backup was chosen for Grissom, he could only be USAF or USN. That would give the USAF or USN two members on "The First Team." Too many "coincidences" for me to accept. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 730
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 04-30-2015 05:07 PM
I am not familiar with the story on Robert Solliday other than to know he was still young enough to have applied for the second astronaut group. Why didn't he, or did he? |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2458
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 05-01-2015 12:17 AM
There is a possible hint that he did. Colin Burgess in his book 'Selecting the Mercury Seven' says "....17 September 1962, Mitchell and Solliday found that they had again missed the ...". |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2043
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 05-01-2015 04:49 AM
Bob Solliday did indeed apply for the second astronaut group and made it through to the final 32, but once again missed out on selection. With his Marine career on the rise he did not apply for any subsequent astronaut groups. | |
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