First US manned space flight,1961. Alan Shepard (1923-1998),on board the Freedom 7 spacecraft capsule just prior to the launch of the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) mission,on 5th May 1961. MR-3 was part of the Mercury program and the first American mission to put a human in Space. It made Shepard the first American in space,and the second person worldwide after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin - who had made his flight in April of that year. Shepherd's flight lasted less than 16 minutes,reaching a height of 187 kilometres. Unlike Gagarin,Shepherd did not orbit the Earth. Photographed on 5th May 1961,at Launch Complex 5 (LC-5),Cape Canaveral,Florida,USA |