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.
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.
Astronaut Walter H. Schirra Jr. (on right), Command pilot, prepares to remove his helmet and climb from his Gemini VI spacecraft as he and Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (not in view) arrive aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir gives a thumbs up after she, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan landed in their Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Friday, April 17, 2020.