<p><b>Image Credit:</b> NASA
</p><p><b>Description</b> Less than a year after its birth, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency announced its first astronaut class, the Mercury Seven, on April 9, 1959. Project Mercury proved that humans could live and work in space, paving the way for all future human exploration.
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This cutaway drawing of the Mercury capsule was used by the Space Task Group at the first NASA inspection, on October 24, 1959.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/44494372@N05">NASA on The Commons</a>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/8980505225/">Project Mercury, 1959-1963</a>