65 years ago... US Navy Cdr NASA astronaut Alan B. Shepard On February 21, NASA Robert Gilruth had chosen the three Mercury astronauts that would make the first flight, in alphabetical order implying that no final decision had been made: Glenn, Grissom and Shepard. LIFE magazine brought the story calling these three the Gold team, the other astronauts were called the Red team. On May , 1961 US Navy LtCdr Alan B. Shepard became the first NASA astronaut making a 15 minutes sub-orbital flight onboard Mercury-Redstone 3 "Freedom 7". Although no wrist watch was worn on the short sub-orbital flights, in September 1959 the Space Task Group for Project Mercury had already issued the first official NASA astronaut wrist watches for the "Mercury 7" astronauts; a bespoke 24 hours dial/movement LeCoultre pilot watch based on the LeCoultre Quartermaster. The military-inspired Quartermaster was produced in 1957 to celebrate 125 years of LeCoultre watches, 2500 were made. The Space Task Group for Project Mercury wanted a 24 hours movement wrist watch so the astronauts were in sink with the worldwide NASA MSFN Manned Space Flight Network of tracking stations & ships. For these 34mm LeCoutre watches, the astronauts had the choice between the "Lizard expansion" bracelet or the lightweight mesh bracelet. However, the watches were only used in training between September 1959 and October 1963. (Photo: LIFE magazine)
