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Mercury Seven

The Mercury Seven were a group of American astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. Announced by NASA on April 9, 1959, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton created a new profession. The group piloted all the spaceflights of the Mercury program that had an astronaut on board from May 1961 to May 1963, and some flew in the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs. Shepard became the first American to enter space in 1961, and walked on the Moon in 1971. Grissom, after flying Mercury and Gemini missions, died in 1967 in the Apollo 1 fire; the others survived past retirement from service. Schirra commanded Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight. Slayton, grounded with atrial fibrillation, ultimately flew on the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Glenn became the first American in orbit in 1962, and flew on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 to become, at age 77, the oldest person to fly in space at the time. (Full article...)

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April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada (1917)

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Andasol solar power station

The Andasol solar power station is a 150-megawatt concentrated solar power station and Europe's first commercial plant to use parabolic troughs. Located near Guadix in Andalusia, Spain, the Andasol plant uses tanks of molten salt as thermal energy storage to continue generating electricity, irrespective of whether the sun is shining or not. It consists of three projects, completed in 2008, 2009 and 2011, and occupying a total area of about 200 hectares (490 acres). Because of its high altitude (1,100 m; 3,600 ft) and the semi-arid climate, the site has exceptionally high annual direct insolation. This aerial view of the Andasol plant was taken in 2021, with the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the background.

Photograph credit: kallerna

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