Unflown American Astronauts...

NASA Selection Group 1 (1959)

Unlinke the first russian selection group of 1960, all the seven members of the first american group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1959 eventually made a spaceflight, with Deke Slayton performing the last one with the ASTP mission in 1975.

NASA Selection Group 2 (1962)

The second astronaut selection group, presented by NASA in 1962 included the first name that was assigned to space missions but never eventually made a spaceflight. It was Elliott See, backup pilot of Gemini 5 mission and later assigned for Gemini 9 mission. See was killed in an T-38 training airplane crash on February 28, 1966.

NASA Selection Group 3 (1963)

From the third astronaut selection group, presented by NASA in 1963, with 14 names, only 4 never made it into space. They were Theodore Freeman (killed in T-38 airplane crash), Charles Bassett (killed in T-38 airplane crash), Clifton Williams (killed in T-38 airplane crash) and Roger Chaffee (killed in Apollo 1 fire).

NASA Selection Group 4 (1965)

The small fourth astronaut selection group, presented by NASA in 1965, included only six names, and from those only Duane Graveline and Frank Michel never flown into space.

NASA Selection Group 5 (1966)

The fifth astronaut selection group, presented by NASA in 1966, included 19 names, and from those only two never made a spaceflight, they were Edward Givens and John Bull.

NASA Selection Group 6 (1967)

The sixth astronaut selection group, presented by NASA in 1967, included 11 names, and many never actually flew neither in the Apollo missions or the later Skylab or even the space shuttle missions. The unflown astronauts were John Llewellyn, Philip Chapman, Donald Holmquest and Brian O'Leary.

And this concludes the list of unflown astronauts up to the 1978 selection, because all of the names selected by NASA in Group 7 (1969) flew in the space shuttle program.

The first unflown astronauts from NASA were:

The MOL project (1965)

The Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar project. It was announced to the public on the same day that the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled, December 10, 1963. Initially, the MOL was intended to prove the utility of man in space for military missions. However, the program was redirected in the mid-1960s and developed as a space station used for reconnaissance purposes. The space station used the Gemini B spacecraft that was derived from NASA's Gemini program. The contractor for the MOL was the Douglas Aircraft Company. The Gemini B/MOL craft was externally similar to NASA's Gemini spacecraft although it underwent several modifications. The most obvious was the addition of a circular hatch through the heat shield to allow passage between the spacecraft and the laboratory.

The MOL program was cancelled in June 1969 when it was determined the capabilities of unmanned spy satellites met or exceeded the capabilities of manned MOL missions. There were 14 MOL astronauts in the program when it was cancelled, and NASA offered those under 35 years of age the opportunity to transfer to the NASA astronaut program. Seven of the 14 MOL astronauts were younger than 35 and took the offer: Richard H. Truly, Karol J. Bobko, Robert Crippen, C. Gordon Fullerton, Henry W. Hartsfield, Robert F. Overmyer, and Donald Peterson. All eventually flew on the Space Shuttle.

From the 3 MOL selection groups (1965, 1966 and 1967) the following names never flew into space: