Spaceflight: The Marine Astronauts Part 1—To the Moon: 1961-1969

John Glenn was the first American to fly an orbital mission in the Project Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft on 20 February 1962. A Marine fighter pilot in WWII and in the Korean War, where he had three aerial victories as a USAF exchange pilot.

Glenn made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the U.S., helped design cockpit layouts for the Apollo Program, was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio four times, and returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77.

Prior to joining the USAF in 1949, Gordon “Gordo” Cooper enlisted in the Marine Corps, but WWII ended before he saw any combat. Cooper graduated from the USAF Experimental Flight Test School in 1957 as a test pilot and was selected as an astronaut in April 1959.

In May 1963, Cooper piloted his Project Mercury Faith 7 spacecraft, orbiting the Earth 22 times in just over 34 hours. Cooper became the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight, commanding the Gemini V spacecraft with pilot Charles “Pete” Conrad in August 1965.

Marine Corps helicopter crews assisted with the recovery of several Project Mercury capsules and astronauts. Marines flying Sikorsky UH-34D helicopters from Marine Helicopter Squadron (Light) 262 retrieved astronaut Alan Shepard and his Freedom 7 spacecraft on 5 May 1961. 

Marine helicopter crews also recovered “Ham the Astrochimp,” the first chimpanzee to fly in space, on 3 January 1961 and astronaut  Gus Grissom whose Liberty Bell 7 sank during the recovery effort on 21 July 1961.

Major Clifton “C.C.” Williams was a Marine test pilot selected as part of the third class of astronauts in 1963 for Project Gemini. He died in a flying accident on 5 October 1967, when his NASA training aircraft suffered a mechanical failure.

Williams served as the backup pilot for the Gemini 10 mission and would have piloted the second Moon landing as part of Apollo 12. His replacement, Alan Bean, placed Williams’ Naval Aviator Wings and NASA astronaut pin on the Moon. 

Walter Cunningham was a Marine Corps aviator from 1953 to 1956, flew 54 missions as a night fighter pilot during the Korean War, and served in the USMC Reserve until 1976. Prior to joining NASA in 1963, Cunningham worked as a scientist at the Rand Corporation researching the Earth’s magnetosphere. 

Cunningham piloted Apollo 7, an 11-day orbital mission that proved the Saturn spacecraft’s endurance for lunar missions in 1968.  NASA later made him chief of the Skylab branch, where he was responsible for the Skylab space station, its launch vehicles, and 56 major experiments. Cunningham left NASA in 1971.

Fred Haise completed his naval flight training in 1954 and served with Marine Fighter Squadrons 114 and 533 until leaving the service in 1956. Joining NASA in 1959, he conducted flight research on wingless lifting bodies and other test aircraft prior to becoming an astronaut in 1966.

Haise was a backup crewmember on the Apollo 8, 11, and 16 missions, and was part of the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. He joined the space shuttle program and in 1977 flew five Approach and Landing Tests in the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise to explore its flight characteristics during landing.