The Right Stuff

The Mercury Seven are the first American astronauts selected by NASA in 1959. In alphabetical order, they are: Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), Gordon Cooper (1927-2004), John Glenn (1921-2016), Gus Grissom (1926-1967), Wally Schirra (1923-2007), Alan Shepard (1923-1998), and Deke Slayton (1924-1993).

Excepting Slayton, each of the astronauts makes a successful trip into space during Project Mercury; Shepard and Grissom take shorter suborbital flights, while Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, and Cooper are all able to orbit the Earth. Although the Seven all have somewhat similar backgrounds, their differing conceptions of the astronaut’s role occasionally creates friction between them. The evolving relationship between the Seven, their families, and the public constitute the backbone of The Right Stuff’s narrative.

John Glenn (1921-2016) deserves special mention because he is the most famous of the Seven. From the first press conference introducing Project Mercury to the public in April 1959, Glenn does the most to define the public image of the astronauts as “seven patriotic God-fearing small-town Protestant family men with excellent backing on the home front” (111). As the most articulate and charming of the group, Glenn quickly attracts most of the media attention surrounding the astronauts. He makes the first orbital flight by an American in February 1962. Wolfe presents him as an idiosyncratic synthesis of extreme ambition, dedication, and religiosity. Glenn would later serve as a US senator and become the oldest person to fly in space in 1998.

“The Chief Designer” is the name used by the Russians to refer to the head of the Soviet space program (55-56). According to Wolfe, nothing is known about this person outside of the Soviet Union. However, the Chief Designer regularly intervenes in The Right Stuff by announcing sudden advances made by the Soviets, including the launch of the first satellite into space (Sputnik, October 1957) and the first human orbital flight around the Earth (Yuri Gagarin, April 1961). Wolfe frequently invokes the Chief Designer as an offstage antagonist in the Cold War space race.

Pete Conrad (1930-1999) and his wife Jane are the first couple introduced to the reader in Chapter 1. Conrad begins his test flight career at a naval base in Florida, where the book begins, before moving on to the US Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. In Chapter 4 Conrad revolts against the astronaut selection process by refusing to give himself an enema as part of the medical evaluation (72-74). This sinks his chance of joining Project Mercury, but he later reappears in Chapter 14, having successfully made the cut for the second group of NASA astronauts.