Spacecraft: Mercury Capsule Friendship 7; Redstone rocket

Launch Pad: LC-5, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Payload: Spacecraft No. 7; Launch Vehicle MR-7

Launch: 9:34 am EST, May 5, 1961

Orbit: 0 orbits completed at an altitude of 116.5 miles

Distance: 303 miles

Velocity: 5,134 mph

Mission Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes, 28 seconds

Landing: May 5, 1961 at 75 deg 53 min longitude, 27 deg 13.7 min latitude in the Atlantic Ocean.

With the historical 15 minute suborbital flight, Astronaut Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space. His mission came a little after than a month after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first human in space. The Mercury – Redstone 3 mission proceeded normally and the mission was a complete success.

Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

The flight of Mercury – Redstone 3 placed Shepard in the history books as the first American in space. Shepard was born in East Derry, New Hampshire, on November. 18, 1923. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, Dartmouth College, Miami University in Ohio, and Franklin Pierce College. Shepard served on a destroyer during World War II and earned his Navy Pilot Wings in 1947. He was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1959, later flying on Mercury – Redstone 3 and he walked on the Moon during Apollo 14. At the rank of Rear Admiral, Shepard retired from NASA and the Navy in 1974. He passed away at his home in California on July 21, 1998.

Click here: Earth observation taken by Freedom 7.
Click here: A view of the launch of Mercury - Redstone 3.
Click here: Another view of the launch of the Mercury - Redstone 3 mission.
Click here: Recovery of the Freedom 7 capsule.
Click here: Astronaut Alan Shepard poses in his Mercury space suit.
Click here: Astronaut Alan Shepard approaches the Freedom 7 capsule.
Click here: Astronaut Alan Shepard climbs into the Freedom 7 capsule.
Click here: A view of Alan Shepard inside Freedom 7.
Click here: Astronaut Alan Shepard in his Mercury space suit.
Click here: Astronaut Alan Shepard suits up for the Mercury - Redstone 3 mission.

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Alan Shepard Biography from the Astronaut Hall of Fame <

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Alan Shepard Profile

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Alan B. Shepard Visitors Center

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Astronaut Alan B. Shepard

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NASA Mercury - Redstone 3 Page

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Apollo 14 from NSSDC

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NASA Apollo 14 Page