Mercury Seven Col. John "Shorty" Powers, who as a result became known in the press as the "eighth astronaut". They wrote first-hand accounts of their selection and preparation for the Mercury missions in the 1962 book "We Seven". Additionally, each of them separately wrote at least one book describing their astronaut experiences. In 1979, Tom Wolfe published a less sanitized version of their story in "The Right Stuff". Wolfe's book was the basis for the film of the same name directed by Philip Kaufman. The five Tracy brothers from the TV series "Thunderbirds" were named after five of the Mercury Seven astronauts.
Seven Heavens seven corresponds to the seven classical planets known to antiquity. Ancient observers noticed that these objects moved at different paces in the sky both from each other and from the fixed stars beyond them: Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Unlike comets, which appeared in the sky with no warning, they did move in regular patterns that could be predicted. They also observed that objects in the sky influenced objects on earth, as when movements of the sun affect the behavior of plants or movements of the moon affect ocean tides. While others believe the seven