Man in Space Soonest
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 59 |
| Year | 1958 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1958 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
Man in Space Soonest (MISS) was a U.S. Air Force program, planned in 1958, to put an American into orbit before the Soviet Union. It was cancelled on 1 August 1958, when human spaceflight was given to the new civilian agency NASA.[1][2]
Origins
After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, the Air Force pushed to be first to put a human in space. MISS planned to orbit an instrumented ballistic capsule, then animals, and finally a man in a small capsule launched on a Thor booster with an upper stage, later an Atlas. Contractors, including Lockheed, took part in studies for the effort.[1][2]
The astronauts
On 25 June 1958 the Air Force announced nine pilots selected for the program: Neil Armstrong, John McKay and Joseph Walker of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; William Bridgeman of Douglas Aircraft; Scott Crossfield and Alvin White of North American Aviation; and Air Force officers Iven Kincheloe, Robert Rushworth and Robert White.[1]
Cancellation
(3).jpg)
On 1 August 1958 President Eisenhower decided that human spaceflight should go to a new civilian agency. NASA was created that October and soon launched Project Mercury, which drew on some of the same ideas and people. Of the MISS pilots, only two reached space: Joseph Walker in X-15 flights in 1963, and Neil Armstrong, who became a NASA astronaut in 1962 and walked on the Moon in 1969.[1]
Significance
The testimony includes MISS as part of the background of military space programs that ran alongside, and sometimes in competition with, NASA. Historians see it as an example of how rivalry between the services shaped the early space age; the military continued its own manned space work through programs such as the X-20 Dyna-Soar and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, both later cancelled.[2][3]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — 34th U.S. president, named in the MJ-12 briefing document.
On the Timeline
- Hill AFB landing claim (1958) (1958) — An anonymous military source claims a UAP deliberately landed at Hill AFB.
- NATO science grants and anti-gravity claim (1958) — NATO begins supporting anti-gravity research through its science grants.
See every 1958 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Man in Space Soonest — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "First up", Air & Space / Smithsonian · smithsonianmag.com · archived copy
- Loyd S. Swenson Jr. et al., This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (NASA SP-4201), chapter 4 (archived) · webarchive.library.unt.edu · archived copy
- thespacereview.com · thespacereview.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.