[razark]

Originally Posted by Platapus

It is commonly understood that the reason that Chuck Yeager could not be an astronaut was because he did not have a college degree.

Which of the original seven Mercury pilots did not have a college degree but still went into space?

Dang it... missed it by minutes.

John Glenn?

In April 1959, despite the fact that Glenn had not earned the required college degree, he was assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of the original group of seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury.

Or Scott Carpenter?

He returned to Boulder in November 1945 to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. At the end of his senior year, he missed the final examination in heat transfer, leaving him one requirement short of a degree. After his Mercury flight, the university granted him the degree on grounds that, "His subsequent training as an Astronaut has more than made up for the deficiency in the subject of heat transfer."