up next on a second look, they had the right stuff. more than a half century ago nasa introduced its first crew of astronauts. the mercury seven. who they were and what they achieved straight ahead on a second look. hello everyone and welcome to a second look. i'm frank somerville. it was on april 9, 1959 that nasa held a news conference to introduce its first astronauts. they were known as the mercury

seven and they would become household names. sy carpenter, gordon cooper, john glen, grisham, sh era, shepherd and slaton. the story of the mercury seven would become a book and a movie both called the right stuff. john serela recapped his nasa career and his life. >> reporter: by the time allen shepherd's space suit shimmered, the united states was behind. garren had already become the first human in space. the u.s. was losing the space race. it was up to shepherd. he carried the duty of carrying the american pride. shepherd had been a navy pilot

before being chosen as one of the seven original mercury astronauts. all wanted to be first in space. but it was shepherd who was flying now. higher, faster and farther than any american had ever gone. >> they all came over and hook my hand. congratulations and filed out of the room. and i didn't see any of the bars i visited on the way home. >> reporter: shepherd sub orbital flight went perfectly. it lasted all of 15 minutes and 20 seconds. >> what a beautiful view. >> i also said what is this beautiful view you talked about. he had a little teeny tiny window. he said i had to say something. so i figured what a beautiful view would be a good line. >> reporter: shepherd made

history. he made history again as one of the first to step on the moon. >> i went to the boss and i said, boss i want to hit a golf ball in the moon. he said shepherd, you've been given me trouble for 15 years, the answer is hell no. >> reporter: in the end he hit not one, but two moon shots. >> that looked like a slice to me al. >> reporter: in 1974, rear admiral alan shepherd retired from nasa and the navy. he spent his remaining years raising money for higher education, promoting space exploration through speeches and books. and he hit lots of golf shots. something he loved, almost as much as flying. >> people have asked me, weren't you proud to be the first man i said yes, i was. but it wasn't because of the

international recognition it was because i had been chosen to do a job and i did it without making a mistake. it was a perfect flight. still to come on a second look. in 1962 he was the first american to orbit the earth and he went up in space again at the age of 77. the incredible life of glen. >> he was very fortunate that he lived. why nasa's former spacecraft director made these remarks about one of the former mercury seven. for easter, get a safeway spiral sliced ham, for just $1.99 a pound. cadbury mini eggs are only $2.69. talk about a sweet deal. and arrowhead water is just $3.33 a case. there's more savings to love at safeway. ingredients for life.

tonight on a second look, remembering the mercury seven astronauts on the 55th anniversary of nasa introducing them to the country. nine months after allen shepherd became the first american in space on a brief flight that essentially wept up and then -- went up and then back up.

john glen became the first to orbit the earth. john fowler looked back that the landmark journey into space. >> reporter: john hershell glen jr. his right stuff was to be tested. after weeks of problem aid delays, glen climbed into the rocket. but problems appeared right away. power failed at a grand tracking station. three hours, 44 minutes after glen first climbed aboard, things were finally working well enough for controllers to declare the flight of freedom seven a go. >> you are go. systems go. capsule clear. >> roger, the clock is

operating. we're under way. >> america cheered, the world watched and held its breath. >> aboard friendship seven it was a much more violent ride than the shuttle launch. he seemed calm. no doubt relieved the rocket didn't explode. >> the view is tremendous. >> reporter: but down a second orbit more problems. this time so serious ground controllers thought glen would die. the control started to fail. glen took over manually. but his craft gyrated wildly. they said he would have to override automatic controls and become the first ever space pilot. >> roger, i understand. i'll have to make a manual entry when it occurs and bring

the scope in manually. is that affirmed. >> that is affirmative. >> during the fiery reentry, parts flew past his window. glen knew there was nothing he could do to save himself from burning up. >> there's a real fire ball outside. >> reporter: but everything held and his parachute luckily opened up early. glen splashed down 40 miles from his target area but close enough. inside the capsule it was extremely hot and glen lost 5 pounds in sweat. his ticker tape parade was bigger >> we are all happy to be

privileged to be part of this. john glen would actually head into space again but it would be nearly 37 years after his historic flight. in 1998 at the age of 77 after a second career as a u.s. senator john glen became the oldest person ever to travel into space. in february of 2012, on the 50th anniversary of his first voyage around the earth. glen talkedded -- talked about that day. >> it's amazing for me to look back 50 years and it's unbelievable it was 50 years ago. because it all seems to clear and vivid to me. >> reporter: steven robinson is a graduate of moraga, uc davis

and stanford university, he called the experience of flying with john glen surreal. now among the mercury astronauts perhaps the most controversial was scott carpenter. he flew nasa's fourth nasa mission to space. when carpenter reentered the earth's atmosphere he landed 250-miles from the target zone. carpenter had fallen behind in his tasks in his final moment of his flight. left two control systems on at the same time leaving him with low fuel levels and fired his reaction rockets late. carpenter would never fly again. nasa's director chris craft was

on tour presenting a tour talked about carpenter. >> he really wasn't qualified. he was lucky he lived. >> he had substandard engineering skills. and after he flew, you swore he would never go into space again. >> i didn't want him to go in the first place. tried to keep him from going as a matter of fact. >> why was he picked then? >> i just don't think we did very well on the criteria that we initially had. if we would have had people speak to their superiors before we selected them i don't think he would have been selected. >> that same year, carpenter wrote a letter to the new york sometimes in response to a review of craft's view. he said that because of the equipment problems on his flight, it would have been a failure if a human had not been on board to compensate for them. and that his repores and briefings led to important changes in capsule design and flight plans. only one of the original seven astronauts flew in all three of nasa's early space

program, mercury,jeremy and apollo. that was sherot. he died of a heart attack in 2007 at the age of 84. when we come back on a second look. why a deadly accident on the launch pad may actually have helped that -- nasa get to the moon. he was known first as one of the mercury seven astronauts. but in later five he became a famous advocate in research into ufos. [sister off screen] so, and i lied to you earlier

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in 1967 a terrible accident took the lives of three astronauts while they were on the tarmac testing their equipment before flight. it may have been that accident in 1967 that actually helped pave nasa's road to the moon two years later.

our health and science editor john fowler first brought us this report in 2001. to triumph of apollo 11 would never have happened if it were not for the tragedy of apollo 1. that's according to this man. nasa's former director of man's spacecraft says chris craft. a turn craft says put nasa on the right track. >> it was called a plug's outfest on pad 34a. 10 months prior to the scheduled launch, the astronauts climbed into their apollo capsule. all three were experienced

military pilots. >> i've got three fuel cell rights. disconnect. >> reporter: chris craft was on head sets in mission control. suddenly there was a spark in the spacecraft. >> oh, oh. >> we have a fire in the spacecraft. >> i could hear gus saying we've got a fire inside the spacecraft. and then i heard roger chassey. i could hear him screaming from pain. i could hear the pad people yelling and screaming. i could hear roger chassey then say, please get us out of here then i heard nothing. when that fire started they were probably dead in 15, 20 seconds. it shocked the nation. and stunned nasa. the deaths also devastated craft who was a pallbearer in grism's funeral.

>> you lost three fine men. although i've seen test pilots killed that probably helped me a little bit not a hell of a lot. >> nasa engineers ran simple tests and discovered that under high pressure oxygen everything burn, even metal. >> we didn't realize how explosive that mixture was when you got a spark. as soon as we started figuring out what happened we all started blaming ourselvesment ourselvesment -- ourselves, it was our fault. we should have been more careful. we should have thought about what that test was doing. we should have argued more about getting the things fixed that weren't fixed. there's a lot of things that belonged in that spacecraft. >> nasa fired some managers, transferred others, changed procedures in quality control. then fixed what turned out to be 125 failure critical items. nasa waited 21 months to make

the next manned launch. and focused like never before on safety and reliability. the space agency kept that focus right on to the moon. >> i'm convinced without the fire, which was a horrible thing to say, without the hiatus created by the fire, i think that we would have probably net made getting to the moon and landing in the era of the 60s. i think it would have been in the 70s before we did it. it may have been more difficult. we may have even had to quit the program. a lot of those problems could have been fatal. >> the statement is, you learn from your mistakes and make advancements. he never made it into space during the mercury program in the 1960s, that was because of heart problem. he finally got his opportunity in 1975 as part of the apollo soyus program. lloyd lacuesta talked with

slaton about his career as an astronaut. >> reporter: slaton has been with nasa since the mercury days. he was part of the first astronauts. but a slight heart irregularity kept him off. by the time the last apollo mission doctors changed their mind. clayton went upto dock with a russian cosmenaut. when the time arrived, one astronaut could not avoid a joke. >> we were part of the training program and we learned to speak russian.

because we spoke russia and they spoke english. >> reporter: the treaty was renewed five years later. but last year president reagan decided not to renew it. joint u.s. soviet space programs ended and funding was left up. >> you go around the world once every 90 minutes and see the whole world. as long as people can talk and do something constructive together they're not going to be fighting. the astronaut that spoke about sightings of ufos and said that the u.s. was hiding information. map may i have another cup please? thank you. next! [ penelope ] nespresso vertuoline. experience the revolution of coffee.

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tonight on a second look we remember the mercury seven astronauts as we celebrate the 55th anniversary this month of nasa's news conference to introduce them to the country.

it was his comments about ufos that drew attention later in his life. cooper said that in 1955 edward's air force base in southern california, that aircraft observers had seen an unidentified flying object. he's not the only experienced pilot to have seen something they couldn't explain. tom vacar brought us this report. >> reporter: neil daniels was a united airlines pilot for 35 years. one march night near sir kouz new york, daniels in command of a jumbo jet says he had an encounter with something.

>> there was a white white brilliant light to the wing tip. it affected the controls. air traffic control said what are your intentions. it took off and disappeared to our rear at the 8:00 position. everything went on to normal. we went on and landed. >> reporter: and trying to avoid ridicule, the incident was not reported.

pilots do see unknown things. lind loconell is part of the reporting system. it's where pilots can report complaints, close calls and other incidences without losing their licenses. >> we do get reports of sightings. it's very difficult from our position to untangle it because there's so many things you have to consider when you're looking at what would be called ufos. >> nasa directed us to this man, richard haynes. retired nasa scientists who for so many years specialized in training pilots. >> they're subject to the same visual illusions that anyone else is of course. they're human beings. but having said that it's been my experience that pilots are remarkably good observers. >> reporter: haynes is now chief scientist of narcap the national reporting center on phenomenon.

the nonprofit group does not even use the term ufo. instead it studies uaps unidentified aerial phenomenon. and takes pilot reports of sighting. >> only 25% of pilots will make a report of something they can't identify. we've identifieded almost 100 cases worldwide where during a close encounter with the phenomenon whatever it is. some part of the aircraft aviation system goes haywire. >> when we were developing the stealth bomber, i always knew that was going on. they'd seen it. >> there's a residual of 20% or 30% of the total reports that just can't be explained in some natural way. and some of those cases are strange indeed. >> i have cases where the phenomenon comes down and

hovers over the runway and blocks the landing traffic so that the tower instructs the plane to do a go around or go to an alternate. i have reason to believe that our air force and space command have been collecting sinced data of anomalies going on that they're not telling us about. that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we see you again next week.

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