CAPTIONS

The Mercury 7 NASA introduced the Project Mercury Astronauts to the world on April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established. Known as the Mercury 7 or Original 7, they are: front row, left to right, Walter H. "Wally" Schirra, Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper. (Courtesy of NASA Langley /April 9, 1959)

HAMPTON

When America's first astronauts arrived at newly renamed NASA Langley Research Center in the spring of 1959, they knew they were going to make history in outer space.

But not until 55 years ago this week did the scientists and engineers of Langley's Space Task Group lay out the kind of training that would teach the pioneers of Project Mercury how to do it.

Astronauts John Glenn, left, and Scott Carpenter inspect a Mercury capsule at NASA Langley Research Center shortly after beginning their training there in the spring of 1959. (Courtesy of NASA Langley/Claude Patterson / May 14, 2014)

Selected on April 2, 1959 -- and presented to the public on April 9 -- the corps of seven military test pilots began their work at Langley on April 27, meeting the team assembled by STG director and Hampton resident Robert R. "Bob" Gilruth to determine if humans could survive the forces of lift-off and orbit in space.

Two weeks passed as they familiarized themselves with the previous research done by the members of the center's relatively small Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, which along with Gilruth had been reassigned to concentrate on the task of human space flight.

The project's goal was to put a man into space using known rocket and missile technologies, "extending the state of the art as little as necessary," NASA officials explained.

But that didn't mean the astronauts and an increasingly large number of Langley-based designers, technicians and engineers wouldn't need an immense amount of preparation and training before they could carry out their mission.

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Pictures: The Project Mercury space program lifts off at NASA Langley | Our Story