The Right Stuff depicts Cooper arriving at Edwards in 1953, reminiscing with Grissom there about the two of them having supposedly flown together at the Langley Air Force Base and then hanging out with Grissom and Slayton, including all three supposedly being present at Edwards when Scott Crossfield flew at Mach 2 in November 1953."Famed aviator Scott Crossfield dies in plane crash." The Seattle Times, April 19, 2006. The film shows the three of them being recruited together there for the astronaut program in late 1957, with Grissom supposedly expressing keen interest in becoming a "star-voyager". According to their respective NASA biographies, none of the three was posted to Edwards before 1955 (Slayton in 1955Gray, Tara. "Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton". NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014. and Grissom and Cooper in 1956,Zornio, Mary C. Virgil Ivan 'Gus' Grissom." NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014.Gray, Tara. "L. Gordon Cooper, Jr." NASA. Retrieved: July 14, 2014.) and neither of the latter two had previously trained at Langley. By the time astronaut recruitment began in late 1957 after the Soviets had orbited Sputnik, Grissom had already left Edwards and returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he had served previously and was happy with his new assignment there. Grissom did not even know he was under consideration for the astronaut program until he received mysterious orders "out of the blue" to report to Washington in civilian clothing for what turned out to be a recruitment session for NASA.
The Right Stuff depicts Cooper arriving at Edwards in 1953 reminiscing with Grissom there about the two of them having supposedly flown together at the Langley Air Force Base and then hanging out with Grissom and Slayton including all three supposedly being present at Edwards when Scott Crossfield flew at Mach 2 in November 1953"Famed aviator Scott Crossfield dies in plane crash" The Seattle Times April 19 2006 The film shows the three of them being recruited together there for the astronaut program in late 1957 with Grissom supposedly expressing keen interest in becoming a "star-voyager" According to their respective NASA biographies none of the three was posted to Edwards before 1955 (Slayton in 1955Gray Tara "Donald K 'Deke' Slayton" NASA Retrieved July 14 2014 and Grissom and Cooper in 1956Zornio Mary C Virgil Ivan 'Gus' Grissom" NASA Retrieved July 14 2014Gray Tara "L Gordon Cooper Jr" NASA Retrieved July 14 2014) and neither of the latter two had previously trained at Langley By the time astronaut recruitment began in late 1957 after the Soviets had orbited Sputnik Grissom had already left Edwards and returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where he had served previously and was happy with his new assignment there Grissom did not even know he was under consideration for the astronaut program until he received mysterious orders "out of the blue" to report to Washington in civilian clothing for what turned out to be a recruitment session for NASA