Here are the real-life facts behind the series The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff/picture courtesy: Disney + Hotstar Premium's account

A gravity-defying story, The Right Stuff, a documentary-series set to launch on Disney+ Hotstar Premium, shuttles into the realities of one of the first-ever missions of NASA. At its early stages of being six months old in 1959, NASA chose a team for an incredible project that would change the scope of space and man's travel into the depths of the worlds beyond our own.

Premiering on 9th October on Disney+ Hotstar Premium, viewers will catch the story based on true events, that displays America's ambitious journey into space and how they began a program that created celebrities in a life-changing competition between ambitious astronauts and their families for money, stardom and immortality. Ahead of the premiere of the series, here's a few real events that the story is based on:

It is based on the bestselling book by Tom Wolfe - The Right Stuff

The book extensively captured the true stories of the pilots engaged in the Project Mercury Mission. Wolfe had interviewed test pilots, the astronauts, and their wives to unearth the stories and the missions' challenges.

The series is a TV adaptation of the 1983 movie of the same name

The eight-episode season, an adaptation of the 1983 released movie The Right Stuff by Philip Kauffman, is an inspirational look at the early days of the U.S. Space Program and the iconic story of America's first astronauts, the Mercury 7.

It is based on NASA's Project Mercury

The mission Project Mercury was a NASA program that launched the first Americans into space. Seven astronauts were chosen for the mission and they were called the ‘Mercury 7' - These seven original American astronauts were Alan Shepard, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, and Deke Slayton.

Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space in 1961

Played by Jake McDorman in the series, Alan Shephard was the first American to enter space in 1961. He named his spacecraft Freedom 7. The 15-minute flight went into space and came back down. Ten years later, Shepard also journeyed to the Moon as the commander of Apollo 14.

The Mercury 7 flew separate space crafts

Gus Grissom was the second astronaut, after Shephard to fly in Project Mercury followed by John Glenn who was the first American to orbit Earth in his spacecraft Friendship 7. Scott Carpenter later flew on Aurora 7 with Wally Schirra taking up the mission next, on his Sigma 7. Gordon Cooper flew on the last Mercury mission where he spent 34 hours circling Earth in his capsule, Faith 7. Deke Slayton was part of the Project Mercury astronauts but had to fly on a separate mission in 1975 owing to his poor health.

There were other test flights to make the Project Mercury mission safer

A rhesus monkey, Sam, and two chimpanzees, Ham and Enos, flew in Mercury capsules to make the Mercury 7's mission safer. NASA had developed flights prior to the mission to ensure the basic safety measures were covered so that they could launch man into space with the mission. This was the first lesson in learning how to enable orbiting the universe and flying a spacecraft.

So grab your space suit and launch into space with The Right Stuff only on Disney+ Hotstar Premium starting 9th October 2020!

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