gordoncooper

That banner is up there to celebrate that the ship in the photo, the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge (CV-33), was the recovery vessel for two of NASA's Project Mercury 1-man missions. Astronaut Wally Schirra's mission was the MA 8 designation (stands for Mercury-Atlas 8, the 8th Atlas rocket used in both test and manned flights) and his spacecraft "Sigma 7" splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after orbiting the Earth 6 times in early October, 1962. The capsule, with him in it, were hoisted aboard the Kearsarge before he got out. Astronaut Gordon Cooper's mission was MA 9, respectively, and he was picked up by the Kearsarge mid-May the following Spring after completing 22 orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean aboard "Faith 7", which the final mission in the Project Mercury program. Further reading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kearsarge_(CV-33) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_8 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_9 ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19630011968... ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19630012071...

The aircraft the Mercury Seven are standing in front of (Convair F-106B Delta Dart, AF 59-0158) escaped being blown out of the sky as a target drone and was recently restored. It now sits on display in Century Circle at Edwards Air Force Base. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x70VvAeQ5X0 www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123066163 Links to the original photo: grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001286.html grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/MEDIUM/GPN-2000-001286.jpg

Great photo, they were some guys.

While some of the astronauts in the photo flew on Gemini missions, this photo should be labeled as the Original Mercury 7 astronauts -not Gemini astronauts.