In a US Air Force briefing of 25 June 1958 a preliminary astronaut selection for the Man-In-Space Soonest project was made. The list consisted of NACA and USAF test pilots Robert Walker, Scott Crossfield, Neil Armstrong, Robert Rushworth, William Bridgeman, Alvin White, Iven Kincheloe, Robert White, and Jack McKay. This was the first preliminary astronaut selection in history. The project was cancelled when NASA took responsibility for all manned space flight on 1 August 1958. Prospective MISS contractors estimated it would take from 12 to 30 months to put the first American in orbit. In retrospect the orbital flight portion of NASA's Mercury program was paced by the availability of the same Atlas booster that would have been most likely used for the MISS program. Therefore it was unlikely that Man-in-Space-Soonest would have put an American in orbit any earlier than Mercury.

	Armstrong	Neil Alden Armstrong. American Pilot Astronaut. Born 5 August 1930. First person to step onto the moon. Member of first crew to dock in space.
	Bridgeman	William Barton Bridgeman. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 1916. Died 29 September 1968.
	Crossfield	Albert Scott Crossfield. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 2 October 1921. Died 19 April 2006. First man to reach Mach 2; first Hispanic test pilot.
	Kincheloe	Iven Carl Kincheloe. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 2 July 1928. Died 26 July 1958.
	McKay	John Barron McKay. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 8 December 1922. Died 15 April 1975.
	Rushworth	Robert Aitken Rushworth. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 9 October 1924. Died 17 March 1993.
	Walker Joseph	Joseph Albert Walker. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 20 February 1921. Died 8 June 1966.
	White Alvin	Alvin Swauger White. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 9 December 1918. Died 29 April 2006.
	White Robert	Robert Michael White. American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 6 July 1924. First person to reach space in a rocketplane.