For Researchers

Primary and Secondary Sources

For good introductions to NASA and Project Mercury, we recommend the following histories and accounts:

Carpenter, M. Scott, et al., ed. by John Dille, We Seven (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962), available through Amazon.com booksellers, this book was a bestseller when it was first published and remains one of the best first-person accounts of Project Mercury. A must for any spaceflight history library. And, yes, the astronauts themselves actually wrote their chapters.

Gilruth, Robert Rowe, oral history. Dr. Gilruth headed up the NACA’s Pilotless Aircraft Research Division in Langley, Va., and was named director of the Space Task Group in 1958 as NACA morphed into NASA. At Langley, the Project Mercury astronauts reported to him alone. President John F. Kennedy consulted Gilruth before deciding to embark on the Apollo program.

Gilruth’s invaluable six-part oral history was conducted by historians at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).

Glennan, T. Keith. The Birth of NASA: The Diary of T. Keith Glennan. Ed. by J. D. Hunley. NASA SP-4105, 1993.

Grimwood, James M. Project Mercury: A Chronology. NASA SP-4001, 1963.

Swenson, Loyd S., Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA SP-4201, 1966, reprinted 1999.

Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1979). Inimitable, thrilling, gonzo account of the great duel in the sky pitting the Yeager-led Edwards test pilots against the rocket-equipped Project Mercury astronauts—oh, and all of the Americans against the Soviet cosmonauts too!

Most NASA publications may be purchased by contacting NASA HQ history office; see NASA publications.

Please see MA-7 .pdfs

(Our thanks to the NASA HQ history office for its help with these terrific .pdfs.)