Memorandum on the Exchange of Visits with Russian Astronauts
This document is a memo from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 regarding the exchange of visits with Russian astronauts and proposing to publicly work with Russia. In the 1950s the Soviet Union and the United States both announced crewed space flight programs and NASA was concerned about the growing competition between the two countries. The memo states, “Propaganda-wise, we apparently stand to gain a great deal and could lose little or nothing.” Two of the Mercury Seven, Walter M. Schirra and Donald K. Slayton, in an apparent protest to this, crossed their names out and did not sign. Please visit the National Archives Catalog for other NASA records such as Star Chart from Apollo 11, astronaut Ed White’s space walk from Gemini IV, and John Glenn sitting with astronauts around a Mercury capsule.
Memorandum on the Exchange of Visits with Russian Astronauts, dated October 21,1959. National Archives Identifier: 4662499
View and download the Memorandum on the Exchange of Visits with Russian Astronauts on the National Archives Catalog. You can explore more of our holdings by visiting our online Catalog or by visiting the National Archives at Fort Worth. This record is located within Record Group 255: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Series: Reference Files on Project Mercury, 1958–1963. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives at Fort Worth.