SPACE: Mercury Astronauts

As soon as the U.S. decided to go ahead with Project Mercury, the first missile-borne man-in-space capsule (TIME, Jan. 26), the Pentagon's IBM machines began sorting through Air Force and Navy records for pilots with certain specifications. Among them: a university degree in the physical sciences or engineering, completion of military test-pilot training, a minimum of 1,500 logged hours of flight time, age less than 40, maximum height 5 ft. 11 in., superb physical condition, and physical and psychological attributes suited for space flight. Last week Keith Glennan, boss of the National...