Man In Space Soonest
Man In Space Soonest ( MISS ) (to German "man in space as soon as possible" ) was an American program of the US Air Force to before the Soviet Union an astronaut in space to send.
history
On June 25, 1958, nine test pilots were selected by the US Air Force for the MISS program. This selection was the first astronaut selection in history. This group later became astronauts in the Apollo program and test pilots in the X-15 program.
The Air Force was planning to launch a manned capsule into orbit with a Thor rocket or later an Atlas rocket. The program was transferred to NASA when it was founded on October 1, 1958 and was given responsibility for manned spaceflight. The MISS program was discontinued by NASA and resulted in the Mercury program .
MISS was unsuccessful because the Soviet Union, Vostok 1 , sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin , into space on April 12, 1961 .
The members of the MISS group
- Neil Armstrong
- William Bridgeman
- Scott Crossfield
- Iven Kincheloe
- John McKay
- Robert Rushworth
- Joe Walker
- Alvin White
- Robert White
See also
Web links
- Man-In-Space-Soonest in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)