On April 9th, 1959, in Washington D.C., America’s first seven astronauts were announced at a NASA press conference.
The selection process for Astronaut Group 1 started from 508 service records, all from branches of the U.S. Military. From that group, “110 men were found to meet the minimum standards.” A grueling medical and psychological examination process whittled down the number of applicants, with NASA eventually settling on seven instead of six of the 18 finalists.
NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, STS-135 pilot, attired in a training version of his shuttle launch and entry suit, participates in a training session in the fixed-base shuttle mission simulator (SMS).
International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams set a new U.S. spaceflight record, passing the 520-day endurance record set for cumulative time spent in orbit.