Before Going To Space, Astronauts Had to Survive the Desert

No one knew if the first endeavour at getting humans into space would ram catastrophically . Before any astronaut could leave the planet , NASA tested their capacity to come through a crash landing in a hostile environment by abandoning them in the desert with only a re - entry cod and parachute for party .

The original seven Mercury cosmonaut are , left to right field , L. Gordon Cooper Jr. ; M. Scott Carpenter ; John H. Glenn Jr.;Alan B. Shepard Jr. ; Virgil I. Grissom ; Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Donald K. Slayton . Photo credit entry : NASA

The first astronauts ferociously hug the unnamed , strapping themselves onto towering great deal of explosive , accelerating at tremendous charge per unit , and experimenting with their life to discover the impact of spacefaring on the human soundbox . No one will question the bravery of the Mercury Seven , but not all their adventures involve high - applied science in the space raceway .

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To check the cosmonaut would survive every eventuality during thefirst steps into orbit , NASA get off them to survival schooltime to make indisputable they could live long enough to be rescue in the aftermath of a clangoring landing somewhere unexpected . The very first selection school took place in the comeupance of Nevada in 1960 , where the astronauts were expect to habituate their special resources to survive the rough climate .

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The astronauts were abandoned in the desert for four days with a mockup of the Mercury spacecraft , chute attach . The objective was for them to practice a selection scenario in case they were stranded for real after a landing gone askew . They bring to their desert - adventure with zest , some fashioning clothes out of their chute prior to being “ rescue ” in their grimy splendour .

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Different variations of this survival training go on today , with theEuropean Space Agency chucking their astronauts out of whirlybird or give up them at sea , theRussian space representation sending their astronaut to winter natural selection schooltime , andNASA dropping their astronauts off in a salmagundi of situation . The one vernacular characteristic is that if you want to be an cosmonaut , you better be ready to crash - land anywhere , and still be alive when we ultimately track you down days later on .

Image credit : credit rating : Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center ( GCTC )

For more place - history , check out thefirst crewed American suborbital launching , and the story ofAlan Shepard , moon - golfer .

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