R1 Recruiter #1
I guess you've heard about our project. We're going up against the Russians all the way. It's got the highest...
R2 Recruiter #2
Priorities.
R1 Recruitrer #1
It's a hazardous undertaking. In fact, it's extremely hazardous, if you get my meaning.
R2 Recruiter #2
It's so hazardous, that, if, uh, you decide not to volunteer, it will not be held against you in any way.
R2 Recruiter #2
Very dangerous.
R1 Reporter 1#
Gentlemen, I'd like to know from each of you whether your wives and children had anything to say about this. Mr. Slayton?
Deke Slayton Uh, mine thinks it's fine.
R2 Reporter 2#
Thank you. Mr. Schirra?
Wally Schirra Uh, they're all for it.
You know, I don't think any of us could really go on with something like this if we didn't have pretty good backing at home. Really. My wife's attitude toward this has been the same as it's been all along through my flying. If it's what I want to do, she's behind it, and by golly, my kids are too, a hundred percent!
R Reporter
I'm going to place a long distance call to Los Angeles.
Air Force Major [resets the phone]
Who are you calling?
R Reporter
The press! This is big news! The sound barrier's finally been broken!
Air Force Major No, sir, no press!
Air Force Major No word of this going beyond the flight-line!
R Reporter
[inserts a coin]
Hey, come on, now! This is big news! We need coverage for this!
Air Force Major No, sir, sorry! No press! Those are orders. National security.
R Reporter
But the war's over!
Air Force Major Well, look, pal. Maybe they don't want someone to know.
Air Force Major The Russians, maybe.
R Reporter
The Russians?! They're our allies!
Air Force Major Well, anyway, somebody wanted it that way. And that's the way it is.
[Alan Shepard is being prepared for his flight and has just been sealed inside the Mercury spacecraft.]
Dear Lord - please don't let me **** up.
Gordon Cooper [at launch control center]
I didn't quite copy that. Say again, please.
[An alarmed Shepard, realizing his communications are being monitored, tries to cover up his words.]
Uh, I said everything is A-OK!
Gordon Cooper [amused]
Well, I thought that's what you said. [switches channels] He says everything is A-OK!
Gordon Cooper [The seven Mercury astronauts are being shown their spacecraft.]
Uh, where are you putting the window?
German Scientist #1 Window? There is no window.
Gus Grissom No window? What about the hatch?
German Scientist #1 The hatch?
Gus Grissom Yeah, the hatch. We need a hatch with explosive bolts that we can open ourselves.
German Scientist #1 I think there is something you do not understand. This is the final form of the capsule. No hatch.
Deke Slayton What if the automatic controls went out?
German Scientist #1 Backups, checks, etcetera. This would not happen.
Deke Slayton I said, what would happen if it did?
Scott Carpenter The pilot would have to fly it back.
GS German Scientist #2
This is the way it is.
You know, I wonder how the press is going to feel about this.
GS German Scientist #2
The press? What does the press have to say about this?
German Scientist #1 Yeah, what do they have to say about it?
Gordon Cooper You boys know what makes this bird go up? Funding makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom That's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Gordon Cooper And, uh, the press over there, they want to see Buck Rogers.
Deke Slayton And that's us. Buck Rogers.
You see, those fellas over there, they've been making us out as the seven finest, and bravest pilots in all America. And if a story were to come out in the press that we were not being allowed to fly as pilots...
GS German Scientist #2
Uh, there could maybe be in future capsules, be a window, right here.
Gus Grissom No, that's where the hatch with explosive bolts goes.
German Scientist #1 The hatch with the explosive...? Yeah. There could be a hatch with explosive bolts on the capsule.
That is a spacecraft, sir. We do not refer to it as a "capsule". Spacecraft.
German Scientist #1 Yeah. The hatch with explosive bolts on the... spacecraft. There. And there will be pitch and yaw thrusters which will enable the astronaut occupant—
Deke Slayton The pilot. "Astronaut occupant"?
German Scientist #1 Yeah, the astronaut... pilot to have some...
[Holds up a hand, interrupting him.]
German Scientist #1 To have...
[Points at the press, then gestures to the scientist that he may continue speaking.]
German Scientist #1 ... control of the re-entry procedures.
Thank you. we appreciate it. You wouldn't mind if we had the press over here take a few photos of us by our spacecraft now, would you?
[closing narration]
The Mercury program was over. Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffee, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule. But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American. Twenty-two complete orbits around the world, he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
