Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. We know that Jury Gagarin from the Soviet Union was the 1st man in space, with his flight dating April 12, 1961. During "Project Mercury" the 1st American put into the orbit and bringing him back safely to earth was Alan B. Shepard at Mai 5, 1961, with "Freedom 7". Just a few weeks later.
The first fully completed orbital flight around the earth by an American was then accomplished by John Glenn, at February 20, 1962, with "Friendship 7".
"The Seven" is the famous team of those brave astronauts:
Malcolm Scott Carpenter
Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr.
John Herschel Glenn, Jr.
Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr.
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton
I highly recoomend the book "We Seven" in order to get more insights into this project and its team of seven extraordinary men.
It was up to Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. with "Faith 7" to accomplish the last flight of the project mercury at Mai 15, 1963, shortly before the program was ended in June 1963, followed by the Gemini program.
Gordon Cooper was the man out of "the seven", initiating the development of a knife for the mercury mission, made to their specifications by Bo Randall and his team. The result is the Model 17 Astro. You will find some words on this story inside the well known book "The History of the Man and the Blades" by Robert L. Gaddis, at pages 171-185, as well as into the above mentioned book "We Seven".
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