Man in Space Soonest

Man in Space Soonest, often shortened to MISS, was a United States Air Force program intended to put a person into outer space before the Soviet Union. The plan called for orbiting an instrumented ballistic capsule first, then progressing to primates and finally to a man. Launch vehicles under consideration included the Thor-Vanguard, a Thor with a fluorine upper stage, and a Titan with added fluorine second and third stages. The program was cancelled on 1 August 1958 and was replaced by NASA Project Mercury. Only two men associated with the program later reached space: Joseph A. Walker, who did so in X-15 rocket plane flights in 1963, and Neil Armstrong, who became a NASA astronaut in 1962, flew on Gemini 8 in 1966 and walked on the Moon on Apollo 11 in 1969. It never flew a crewed or uncrewed mission of its own.