26. [Project Mercury] THE ICONIC MERCURY SEVEN: NASA's first astronauts introduced to the world NASA, 30 April 1959 Printed 1959. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image B-59-41]. With NASA caption on the reverse, numbered "NASA B-59-41" in black in the lower margin (issued by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context One of NASA's earliest images, this historic portrait was taken by Bill Taub, NASA's first senior photographer, on April 30, 1959, during the first training period of the Mercury Seven with the Space Task Group at the Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia. Taub, who documented every mission from Mercury to Apollo, earned the nickname "Two More Taub" for his habit of requesting just a few more shots. Often one of the last to see the astronauts before liftoff, he captured some of the most memorable moments in NASA's history. The Mercury astronauts—(front row, from left) Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Donald "Deke" Slayton, Gordon Cooper, and (back row) Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra, and John Glenn—are shown alongside a model of the Atlas booster and Mercury capsule. Announced to the world on April 9, 1959, the Mercury Seven were military test pilots chosen under President Eisenhower's directive to streamline the selection process. They reported to NASA's Langley Space Task Group just weeks later, on April 27, to begin their intensive training program. As Project Mercury launched in the late 1950s, NASA's Langley Research Centre became the focal point of the national space effort. Under the guidance of the Space Task Group, the Seven trained to operate the pioneering spacecraft that would carry them beyond Earth's protective atmosphere. Project Mercury's primary goal was to determine whether humans could survive space travel, and the Mercury Seven quickly became national heroes. TIME magazine compared them to "Columbus, Magellan, Daniel Boone, and the Wright brothers," immortalizing their place in American history. Literature Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (NASA SP-350), Cortright, ed., p. 26