Earl Perkins

Rocket Man Earl Perkins

"We set sail on this new sea . . ."

On April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America's first astronauts to the press--Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Donald Slayton. The seven men, all military test pilots, were carefully selected from a final group of thirty-two candidates.

But the real truth of NASA's search for America's best pilots is not found in the thirty-two finalists that eventually produced Project Mercury's heroic list of space pioneers. The Original Seven Mercury astronauts chosen to lead America's charge into a new frontier were certainly worthy. They were America's best and brightest.

But perhaps the very best never got the chance and served his country in obscurity.