On 5 May 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard rode Mercury-Redstone 3 on a 15-minute suborbital hop, becoming the first American in space weeks after Gagarin’s orbital flight.
He later walked on the Moon on Apollo 14 and even swung a golf shot across the lunar dust. The short first flight proved U.S. crews could ride rockets safely.
National firsts often start with brief leaps. Shepard’s hop opened the American chapter of human spaceflight.
Comments
0 comments