In January of 1961, Bob Gilruth called the seven NASA astronauts into his office and asked each of them to vote for the man they thought should make the first flight.

John Glenn was horrified. He’d been giving everything he had to his astronaut training, and now the first flight assignment had come down to a peer vote.

He knew he’d been rubbing his peers the wrong way, chastising their extramarital indiscretions and bad behavior. And sure enough, he lost the peer vote. Al Shepard (right) would make the first flight with both John (centre) and Gus Grissom (left) serving as his backups.

John Glenn was so upset he wrote Gilruth a letter urging him to reconsider his decision and put the program’s best face forward, namely his own.

John Glenn was in a position to argue for his being the first man in space while Jerrie Cobb was desperate just to get a meeting with Gilruth. I tease out their very different experiences in Fighting for Space! http://bit.ly/FFSamazon