Building on America’s 65-Year Legacy of Human Spaceflight

On the morning of May 5, 1961, the Mercury-Redstone 3 launch vehicle lifted into the sky from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. Over the next 15 minutes, Shepard ascended to an altitude of 116 miles (187 kilometers) in his Freedom 7 spacecraft, becoming the first American to fly into space before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. …