Page 7 - Human Space Flight Program News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Became a test pilot. in 1962, he was chosen as part of the first group of astronauts selected after the mercury 7. his name may not be a household one. but many inside the space program believe his accomplishments rival those of shepard, glen and armstrong. >> his legacy in american space history really is in some ways more significant than armstrong's. john's career, with nasa, is over 40 years long. and he was -- he was so important to the entire human space flight program. >> reporter: during that time, about the only thing john young didn't fly was in a mercury capsule. in 1965, he and gus...

Pilot. in 1962, he was chosen as part of the first group of astronauts selected after the mercury 7. his name may not be a household one, but many inside the space program believe his accomplishments rival those of shepard, glen and armstrong. >> his legacy in american space history really is in some ways more significant than armstrong's. john's career, with nasa, is over 40 years long. and he was -- he was so important to the entire human space flight program. >> reporter: during that time, about the only thing john young didn't fly was in a mercury capsule. in 1965, he and gus grissom flew ...

Movie called "hidden figures." >> we have the women that changed the course of the history of the nation, and we don't know about them. >> she plays one of the black women at nasa who did the math that put men in space, and growing up in west virginia, numbers were always on johnson's mind. >> i counted everything. i am counting plates when i washed dishes. >> she graduated college at 18, and then on to nasa, becoming an unsung hero behind historic missions, by allen shepherd and john glenn, who insisted she verify the computer's calculations before his first orbit around the earth. >> he knew...

Brevard. what makes brevard different than detroit? >> the skilled highly technical workers that you had on the space coast, centered around the kennedy space center are an irreplaceable talented pool. if you wish to restart the space program or restart our human space flight program, accelerate it the people are not there as a resource. and we've wasted a major national investment over the last 30 years by not following up the retirement of the shuttle with a more ambitious successor program out into deep space. jenna: the 60 minute piece that covered this last night talked about a lot of the...

endorsements but a bit of a dark cloud on the horizon. more on that in just a moment, but, first, his fight for the gop nomination. a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows him with a commanding lead over mitt romney. the other candidates trailing far behind. paul steinhauser is in washington. paul, the same poll shows gingrich struggling in a head-to-head race against president obama. tell us about that. >> that horse race poll and two others indicate the same thing. way ahead in the horse race. look at this, hypothetical matchups next november. president obama versus gingric...