Mercury Seven part-time student at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1956 to 1959. Both astronauts were ultimately awarded their bachelor's degrees after their 1962 space flights. NASA introduced the astronauts in Washington on April 9, 1959. Although the agency viewed Project Mercury's purpose as an experiment to determine whether humans could survive space travel, the seven men immediately became national heroes and were compared by "Time" magazine to "Columbus, Magellan, Daniel Boone, and the Wright brothers." Two hundred reporters overflowed the room used for the announcement and alarmed the astronauts, who were unused to such a large audience. Because they
Seven Apostolic Men the 8th or 9th centuries, these seven clerics arrived at "Acci" (Guadix) during the celebrations in honor of Jupiter, Mercury, and Juno. The pagans chased them to the river, but the bridge collapsed miraculously and the seven men were saved. A noblewoman named Luparia, interested in their mission, hid them and converted to Christianity after building an altar in honor of John the Baptist. The Dominican writer Rodrigo de Cerrato also wrote about the Seven Apostolic Men during the 13th century. The seven missionaries decided to evangelize various parts of the region of Baetica: Torquatus remained in Acci (Guadix), Ctesiphon