Wernher Von Braun & Astronaut Group 2

ARMSTRONG AND THE "NEW NINE" MEET VON BRAUN.

NASA Astronaut Group 2, known as the "New Nine" was the second group of NASA astronauts, their selection announced on September 17, 1962. President Kennedy had announced Project Apollo and the ambitious goal of landing a man on the Moon on May 25, 1961. This new group of astronauts was selected for their test pilot experience and advanced engineering degrees: qualities that would make them well suited to the unique challenges that lay ahead such as space rendezvous and lunar landings.

The present signed photograph was taken on the occasion of the New Nine's first trip to the Marshall Spaceflight center and their first meeting with its director, Wernher von Braun. Since their start just a couple of months earlier, the astronauts had seen the Mercury-Atlas 8 launch of Wally Schirra (who also attended this meeting) and then engaged in an exhaustive tour of the many facilities of the contractors that contributed to the Apollo Program. The Marshall Space Flight Center and a meeting with the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket may have been one of the more important stops on their tour. Deke Slayton, who as the senior manager of the astronaut office had selected the Group 2 astronauts as well as John Glenn, who had earlier in the year flown on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission were also on this tour.