On April 9, 1959, NASA named its first seven astronauts. The Mercury Seven or the “Original Seven” as they were called, were: Navy aviators M. Scott Carpenter, Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Alan B. Shepard Jr.; three Air Force pilots, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Virgil I. Grissom and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton; and Marine Corps pilot John H. Glenn Jr.