People: Jul. 13, 1962

Into Houston to visit the new, $90-million Manned Spacecraft Center that will be their headquarters by 1964 wheeled the seven Mercury astronauts. By way of welcome, 150,000 Texans lined a 1½-mile route as the seven—John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, Leroy Cooper and Donald Slayton—drove by with their families. To Walt Schirra, hundreds held up six fingers for the number of orbits he is to make in the next U.S. space flight. The parade led to the Sam Houston Coliseum for a neighborly cookout at which 1,500 chickens,...