This video follows Alan Shepard and the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission, the United States’ first manned spaceflight launched just ...

As the Soviet Union put the first man in space in April of 1961, the Americans were already preparing a similar mission. Project Mercury's objective was to launch an American astronaut into orbit and ...

Those were the words Alan Shepard used 60 years ago Wednesday to note his cockpit timepiece had begun running. This meant his Redstone rocket booster had left the ground sending him and his one-man ...

FILE - In this May 5, 1961 file photo, astronaut Alan Shepard arrives at the launching pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to board a Mercury-Redstone rocket. Freedom 7 was the first American manned ...

On May 5, 1961, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to go to space. He launched from Cape Canaveral on a Mercury-Redstone rocket in a space capsule named Freedom 7. This was the ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Fifty years to the moment Alan Shepard rocketed away, more than 100 Project Mercury workers joined former astronauts and NASA leaders at the original Redstone launch pad ...

50th anniversary of Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight. May 5, 2011 — -- Fifty years ago today, astronaut Alan Shepard squeezed into a tiny Mercury capsule and challenged the heavens. He called his ...

CC0 Usage Conditions ApplyClick for more information. This collection consists of twenty-one U.S. Navy photographs compiled for the press kit prepared for the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) mission as well ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Sixty years after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, everyday people are on the verge of following in his cosmic footsteps. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company is ...