The Transcript of the First American Space Flight, Signed by Its Astronaut Alan Shepard and 5 of the First 6 Americans in Space

The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. The Mercury Seven created a new profession in the United States, and established the image of the American astronaut for decades to come.

In May 1961, crammed into a Mercury Space Capsule that he named Freedom 7, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel in space. Clamped atop a Redstone rocket nearly 7 stories high, the capsule was blasted into sub-orbital flight that laid to rest any doubts that man could function in space—at least for a short period. In a mission that lasted just over 15 minutes, Alan Shepard managed and monitored 27 events and communicated with Mercury Control 78 times.

Freedom 7’s mission was a milestone along the course charted by President Kennedy to make the United States number one in the world in space exploration. Three weeks after this capsule safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, President Kennedy announced to the nation the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth before the end of the decade, a goal that was achieved in July 1969. The Freedom 7 space capsule is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC.

The next of the Mercury 7 to go to space was Gus Grissom on the Liberty Bell 7, followed by John Glenn. On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John H. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7. Scott Carpenter was backup to Glenn during the latter’s Mercury Atlas 6 orbital mission. Carpenter flew the next mission, Mercury-Atlas 7, in the spacecraft he named Aurora 7. Next was Wally Schirra. On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed Sigma 7, becoming the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space. The sixth was Gordon Cooper. In 1963 Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. During that 34-hour mission he became the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in space, and the last American launched on an entirely solo orbital mission. Among the original Mercury 7 astronauts, only Deke Slayton was not able to make it space, disqualified months before due to a medical condition.

Document signed, multiple pages, on “Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center” letterhead, signed by six of the seven Mercury 7 astronauts, all except Grissom, who died in 1967, no date but after the renaming of the Space Center in 1973. “Transcript for the Flight of Freedom VII”, signed in the margin by Shepard, Glenn, Slayton, Cooper, Carpenter, and Schirra. It seems clear that the person who assembled this group worked at the space center and had access to this stationery and to the astronauts, who likely signed at different times.

It is a rarity to find a document signed by six of the original seven Mercury 7 astronauts, the men who made the United States a power in space.