On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 21:27:33 GMT, Dave Michelson
wrote:

Derek Lyons wrote:

The Pentagon 'decided' to obey the President, who ordered that the initial
group of astronauts come from the services. (The DoDs interest in space
comes somewhat later.)

Sorry, the bracketed remark is incorrect. Both the USAF's X-15 and MISS (Main
in Space Soonest) projects pre-date both the formation of NASA and the
selection of the Original 7.

The X-15 was an NACA/NASA project that the USAF participated in. It
was never a USAF project. Instead it was always a joint NASA/USAF
project, except early on when it was an NACA/USAF project.

In fact, the first ever U.S. (preliminary) astronaut selection was announced
in a USAF briefing concerning MISS on 25 June 1958. The list included
test pilots Robert Walker, Scott Crossfield, Neil Armstrong, Robert
Rushworth, William Bridgeman, Alvin White, Iven Kincheloe, Robert White, and
Jack McKay.

Scotty, Neil, and Jack were civilians, not military. They all worked
at NASA FRC until Scotty went to NAA.

It's interesting to note that it seems that Armstrong was simply destined to
get into space one way or another. (MISS candidate, X-15 pilot, X-20
candidate, NASA Group II.)

NASA test pilot, not military, so he was highly unlikely to be an X-20
candidate. However, he did fly in a NASA project in support of X-20,
mimicking the RTLS escape sequence for the X-20 if the rocket had a
problem on launch and the X-20 had to set itself free and land.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer