978-1-4222-3418-1

The American astronauts, all military pilots, who kicked off the space program for NASA came to be known as the Mercury 7, after the name of the spacecraft they would fly.

military, more and more people headed to space for science. Over the next decades, more and more scientists were sent into space. Each space shuttle mission included people called mission spe- cialists. Most of themwere not pilots, but were sent into orbit to conduct experiments. They had started their scientific careers on Earth . . . but they would continue them in space! Science in Space ust about any branch of science can be studied in space. The way that astronauts reach space startedwith science, of course. Rockets were created by engineers using ideas from physicists .

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