The Right Stuff ending explained (spoilers)

[Antonioliz]

Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) makes another flight into the upper levels of the atmosphere to show that test pilots who aren't part of the space program aren't obsolete. In 1967, Gus Grissom (Fred Ward), Roger Chaffee and Ed White die in a fire in their capsule during the Apollo program. Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid) finally goes into outer space (in May 1963) and his flight was the final flight (22 orbits around Earth) of the Mercury space program and the final solo flight.