Original Mercury 7 astronauts in spacesuits

Press release information, September 13, 1968: "FIRST ASTRONAUT TEAM: Project Mercury Astronauts, whose selection was announced on April 9, 1959, only six months after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formally established on Oct. 1, 1958, Included: Front row, left to right, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper. (1962), *89-361 Also in B&W. This copy of original negative was edited without shadows in the background. Photo taken at NASA Langley Research Center by Life Magazine photographer and negative copied for other centers.