The Mercury Seven were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter.
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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I don't think they were doing EVAs or anything, so I don't really know how impressive the boots need to be, although I am thinking the construction boots / loggers on the middle two are not the regulation ones.
I am picturing them realizing they didn't bring their boots or they were still being made on picture day, so NASA engineers running around trying to find people who had a pair of boots they were willing to let them spray paint LOL.
Looks like left and right are wearing the actual boots btw
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/boot-left-mercury-schirra/nasm_A19721158005
That's fairly close actually! Their suits were still be manufactured and the all the boots weren't finished for the photo shoot. These space suits were custom made to fit each astronaut after all. So someone ran to the hardware store the day of and picked up some boots and silver spray paint to make it work. I feel like they should've had them stand in the back to help hide how different they were.
wow, seems like I probably heard that story before and internalized without realizing, although I would love to believe I guessed correctly.
Super cool piece of history, its easy to forget often people are just flying by the seat of their pants despite the way history and photographs make it look / feel otherwise.
Maybe the people in back had even less of their suit ready. It’s awfully dark back there for them to be wearing shiny pants.