News 50 years since first American in space

[IronRain]

50 years ago, on May 5th 1961, Alan B. Shepard, Jr became the fist US astronaut to fly in space. He made a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes in his Mercury capsule called Freedom 7.
Shortly before the launch, Shepard said to himself: "Don't up, Shepard..." This quote was reported as "Dear Lord, please don't let me up" in The Right Stuff, though Shepard confirmed this as a misquote. Regardless, the latter quote has since become known among aviators as "Shepard's Prayer."

The flight went perfect. Both Shepard and Freedom 7 were in excellent shape. in fact, engineers determined that Freedom 7 was in such a good shape, that it could fly again.

Shepard was born on November 18th, 1923 and he passed away on July 21st, 1998.

 

[Star Voyager]

"Why don't you fix your little problems and LIGHT THIS CANDLE!"

- Lt. Cdr. Alan B. Shepard

 

[Eli13]

We never forget.

 

[Unstung]

I feel this event will go completely unnoticed; even more than Gagarin's.

 

[NukeET]

I feel this event will go completely unnoticed; even more than Gagarin's.

Not in this forum.
Nor on my blog

 

[Fabri91]

Thanks for remembering the event.
I'm afraid I'd have missed it otherwise...

 

[N_Molson]

It's surprising how little smoke and noise the Redstone makes... The R-7 was (is) so much more powerful !

But that 15 minutes travel in space put the USA back on the right way to the Moon. :thumbup:

 

[diogom]

It's surprising how little smoke and noise the Redstone makes... The R-7 was (is) so much more powerful !

That's why the Redstone only made suborbital flights. :tiphat:

A month later than Vostok, but not less important. A day wich will be forever in history.

 

[jgrillo2002]

what we need is a orbiter 2010 version of the mercury program to honor this day. Im hoping someone can make it but god bless the astronauts that risked their lives to space. especially glenn

 

[dnt462]

My scool cares more about cinco de mayo. Its a predominantly white school in new england.
I can think of one student with a spanish/mexican background and I have seen her I a while

 

[jgrillo2002]

you should have just wore a US shirt. It is an american school. sure we should celebrate but that is from another country and this is the US. not mexico. on topic

I wonder if John Glenn is going to do a speech about this

 

[Eli13]

what we need is a orbiter 2010 version of the mercury program to honor this day. Im hoping someone can make it but god bless the astronauts that ricked their lives to space. especially glenn

I hope you're not talking about his political career

 

[jgrillo2002]

I hope you're not talking about his political career

No actually he was one of the mercury astronauts. so no. I dont care about his politics. just his courage on the frontier to space

 

[diogom]

OF, you've done it again! :lol: Grand Opening of New York City's Carnegie Hall, on This Day in History. It's funny, the same happened with April 12.
Shouldn't it have something about Shepard and Mercury?