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
Society of Seven was voted "the Best Show in Waikiki" by the readers of Honolulu Magazine. In 2001, a second troupe was formed, Society of Seven LV. When the formation of the SOS LV was first announced the publicists said that the original SOS group would remain based in Waikiki and the younger group, with the "LV" short for Las Vegas would be based in Las Vegas. However, the original SOS eventually moved to Las Vegas and the Society of Seven LV became the resident version of the group at the Outrigger, though the original Society Of Seven has returned to Hawaii for