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
The Magnificent Seven that it ultimately made a profit. Three sequels were eventually made: "Return of the Seven" (1966), "Guns of the Magnificent Seven" (1969), and "The Magnificent Seven Ride" (1972). None were as successful as the original film. The film also inspired a television series, "The Magnificent Seven", which ran from 1998 to 2000. Robert Vaughn was a recurring guest star, a judge who hires the seven to protect the town in which his widowed daughter-in-law and his grandson live. The science fiction movie "Battle Beyond the Stars" was a remake of "The Magnificent Seven" set in space. A group of mercenaries,