Page:Project Mercury - A Chronology.pdf/46

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A special Committee on Life Sciences was established at Langley to determine qualifications and attributes required of personnel to be selected for America’s first manned space flight and to give advice on other human aspects of the manned satellite program.

Drop tests of full-scale capsules from a C-130 airplane were started to check parachute deployment and spacecraft stability. Preliminary drops of the parachute system were made from a NASA helicopter at West Point,