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
Bunch of Seven The name was invented by Terri Neal as a take-off on the Group of Seven, a group of well-known Canadian artists. Bunch of Seven The Bunch of Seven was a group of science fiction and fantasy writers who met regularly in Toronto from March 28, 1985 until the early 90s to mutually critique manuscripts with the intention of helping each other turn professional—a goal in which several members succeeded. The group's founders were Tanya Huff, S. M. Stirling, Karen Wehrstein, Shirley Meier, Louise Hypher, Terri Neal and Lloyd Penney. Later members included Julie Czerneda, Fiona Patton, Marian Hughes, Stephanie Rendino