We Seven: By the Astronauts Themselves

Published for the fiftieth anniversary of the Mercury program: Project Mercury ran from 1959 through 1963, put the first American in space, and defined NASA's manned space flights to come, from Gemini through Apollo. In We Seven, first published in 1962, the astronauts take readers behind the scenes of this pioneering program even into the space capsules themselves. Fascinating firsthand accounts: The astronauts describe the exhilarating launches, hair-raising challenges, and incredible successes of Project Mercury from breaking through the earth's atmosphere to panicking when a hatch blows. But Project Mercury was more than the heroism of individual missions. In We Seven, America's original astronauts share with us as only they can the hopes and dreams of the U.S. at the dawn of a new era.