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The American space agency opened for business on October first, 1958. NASA’s most important job was to 31 an American into space and return him safely to the earth. Project Mercury was the plan 32 doing this. It would use one of several dependable military rockets to launch a small, one-man spacecraft. 23 space vehicle would return to the earth and land in the ocean. Astronauts would be chosen for the program from the best military test pilots 34 had education in science or engineering.
The idea was simple. But making 35 happen was not a simple job. Thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and other workers were needed. And money was needed―thousands of millions of dollars. Congress approved the money. NASA organized the program. The McDonnell company designed 36 built the spacecraft. The Army and Air Force built the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas rockets. NASA announced the seven 37 chosen on April ninth, 1959. They immediately began training for space flight.
No time was wasted. The first test flights began later that year. Those test flights did not 38 astronauts. Men would fly the Mercury spacecraft only after it was proved safe. The 39 test flight was made at the end of January, 1961. A Mercury spacecraft carried a chimpanzee 40 Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. There were some problems. But the animal survived the launch and the landing in the ocean.