Right Stuff In The Space Race

Occasionally we can all get a little obsessive about things we like. In the 1980s I bought a VHS video tape of the movie The Right Stuff. When the better-quality DVD format became available in the 1990s, I got one of those too. Last month it was released in high-definition Blu-ray; you can guess I didn't wait for Christmas.

The movie deals with Project Mercury, which was officially announced 55 years ago this month by the newly formed civilian space agency NASA. It was the American effort to compete with the Soviet Union in getting a man into space. All the research before NASA was clandestinely handled by the military, mainly for inserting spy satellites into orbit during the Cold War.

It is well known that the Russians beat the Americans to the punch. The frustration is wonderfully caught in the film by Lyndon Johnson exclaiming, ''Why are their German scientists better than our German scientists?''

Seven test pilots were selected for training to become America's first astronauts, and were so feted they were given their own fighter jets for travelling between publicity engagements around the country. Their ranks included Alan Shepard, the second man in space, after the USSR's Yuri Gagarin. He was later to walk on the moon as one of the Apollo 14 astronauts. Another was John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. In 1998, at the age of 77, he became the oldest human to go into space, on the space shuttle Discovery.

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These first astronauts had to be very intrepid. They were launched on rockets that were no more than intercontinental nuclear missiles with modifications and a space capsule on top instead of the original payload. Many rockets exploded on take-off in the testing stage. A certain disregard for their own safety, and the courage to tackle the unknown, was part of the astronauts' make-up. They ignored the risks, understanding that this first foray into space was a vital component of getting to the Moon and conquering the solar system.

They certainly had the right stuff.







