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.
The Seven Stars Inn for indicating the direction North. "The Plough" is also a common pub name. The reference to "seven stars in the sky" in the famous Green Grow the Rushes O! Teaching Song or Dilly Song gives further, if mystical, insights. The Seven Stars could be the Seven Stars referred to in Revelations as representing the seven angels of the Seven churches of Asia; or the Pleiades, or Ursa Major. The song is replete with Christian and Pre-Christian symbolism, and dates to medieval times, if not earlier. Shakespeare refers to the "seven stars" in King Lear Act 1, v The Seven Stars