Man in Space Soonest

<p>Man In Space Soonest (MISS) was a <a href="/facts/United_States_Air_Force/7MxWBYlc">United States Air Force</a> (USAF) program to put a <a href="/facts/Astronaut/HB1bd6Lz">man</a> into <a href="/facts/Outer_space/R3LRKyFs">outer space</a> before the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>. The program was cancelled on August 1, 1958, and was replaced by <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a>'s <a href="/facts/Project_Mercury/H8zqFzbC">Project Mercury</a>. Only two men from the program would actually reach outer space. The first, <a href="/facts/Joseph_A._Walker/CW50hfMn">Joseph A. Walker</a>, did so two or three times (depending on the definition of the <a href="/facts/Space_border/R3LRKyFs">space border</a>) in <a href="/facts/X-15/btDgcYKz">X-15</a> rocket plane tests in 1963. The other, <a href="/facts/Neil_Armstrong/3aoQV60l">Neil Armstrong</a>, became a <a href="/facts/NASA_Astronaut_Corps/KIrAUWHN">NASA astronaut</a> in 1962, flew on <a href="/facts/Gemini_8/QpFvQkHJ">Gemini 8</a> in 1966, and in 1969 on <a href="/facts/Apollo_11/BdUKVnQP">Apollo 11</a> becoming the first person to walk on the <a href="/facts/Moon/zKHqEMPb">Moon</a>.
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Man in Space Soonest open-in-new

Man in Space Soonest