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Author
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Topic: President Eisenhower and Mercury 7
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perineau
Member Posts: 268
From: FRANCE
Registered: Jul 2007
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posted 06-15-2020 11:56 AM
   
I have never seen a photo of President Eisenhower and the Mercury astronauts, although I have seen a couple with Vice-President Nixon. Did Eisenhower ever actually meet them? It seems to be a stark contrast with Ike's successors who never missed a photo-op with "The Right Stuff." |
nasamad
Member Posts: 2153
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 06-15-2020 01:40 PM
There are a few pictures of Eisenhower at various NASA facilities on the internet archive. Images show him with Hugh Dryden, Keith Glennan and Wernher von Braun. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 923
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 06-15-2020 05:53 PM
I don't recall any mention of meeting Eisenhower in the autobiographies of Wally Schirra and Deke Slayton, or the biography of John Glenn. I never read any of the other auto/biographies. I don't believe anything of consequence was written in "We Seven" either.No Eisenhower/Mercury astronauts picture appears in the early NASA publicity pamphlets from 1959 or 1960 that I have in my collection. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1342
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 06-24-2020 06:26 AM
I never saw any. |
Cozmosis22
Member Posts: 1004
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 06-24-2020 07:17 AM
When the seven new astronauts were introduced to the public in April of 1959 president Eisenhower was nearing the end of his second term and had nothing to gain by schmoozing with "the brave new American heroes."The potential candidates for the following year's presidential election were all jockeying for position. On the democratic side there was no clear front runner in 1959 and none of the contenders met with the Mercury 7. On the republican side Eisenhower's vice-president Nixon was the presumptive nominee. Both of them were "hands off NASA" at the time as they were busy downplaying the Soviet accomplishments in space hardware. Although president Eisenhower directed NASA to choose only military pilots to be astronaut candidates there was no love lost between the president and what he described as the "military industrial complex." As it turns out it was probably just as well that there were no presidential photo-ops because the new astro-recruits were quite busy with their rigorous training and various other publicity appearances.
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David C
Member Posts: 1093
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 06-24-2020 08:06 AM
Although there’s no good reason for Eisenhower to have met them, I think it’s kind of a shame now that we don’t have one photo of them together for posterity. |
carmelo
Member Posts: 1052
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 06-25-2020 10:52 AM
Ike was not really interested in space. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 44120
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-25-2020 11:42 AM
On that point, an earlier thread for reference: President Eisenhower's opinion of Apollo. |
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