On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its very first astronaut class. Discover more space history 👉 https://space-com.visitlink.me/pBQddG This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury 7. They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job, and they had all "the right stuff" to take on such risky missions. But in a way, they essentially became guinea pigs for NASA's new human spaceflight program, because they didn't get to do much piloting inside the Mercury spacecraft.

ON THIS DAY: In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery, retracing the trail he had blazed as the first American to orbit the Earth 36 years earlier. https://abcnews.link/fJLpsRq | ABC News