21. The Mercury 7
In the late 1950s, after an extensive program of medical, psychological, and physical evaluation and testing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced the names of America’s first group of astronauts. Overnight the seven men were national celebrities. They were offered a lease on a new Corvette for one dollar a year. All but John Glenn took advantage of the offer. They received the equivalent of $4.4 million dollars from Life Magazine for exclusive access to their homes and families, dividing the money equally among themselves.
Long before any of them flew into space they were in demand for television appearances. NASA approved of their appearances as a means of generating public support for its ever-increasing budget. After Glenn’s first flight, America’s first manned orbital flight in 1962, NASA refused to consider sending him back into space, afraid that an accident involving Glenn – then America’s greatest hero – would set back the space program irredeemably. The Mercury 7 remained celebrities throughout the Mercury Program, which ended in May 1963. By then other classes of astronauts had been selected, though they never achieved the overnight celebrity enjoyed – and exploited – by the first seven.