The first one to reach outer space in the Man In Space Soonest program was which Captain in the United States Air Force, an American World War II pilot, an experimental physicist, and NASA test pilot?
Man in Space Soonest Man In Space Soonest (MISS) was a United States Air Force (USAF) program to put a man into outer space before the Soviet Union. The program was cancelled on August 1, 1958, and was replaced by NASA's Project Mercury. Only two men from the program would actually reach outer space. The first, Joseph A. Walker, did so twice in two X-15 rocket plane tests in 1963. Another, Neil Armstrong, became a NASA astronaut in 1962 and became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.
STS-61-A STS-61-A (also known as D-1) was the 22nd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. It was a scientific Spacelab mission, funded and directed by West Germany – hence the non-NASA designation of D-1 (for "Deutschland-1"). STS-61-A was the ninth and final successful flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the current record for the largest crew - eight people - aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.