OTD in Space – May 5: Al Shepard Becomes 1st American in Space

On May 5, 1961, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to go to space. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com]

He launched from Cape Canaveral on a Mercury-Redstone rocket in a space capsule named Freedom 7. This was the first manned flight of Project Mercury, which NASA created to put astronauts in orbit. Shepard launched just three weeks after the Soviet Union launched the first person into orbit. Shepard's flight was suborbital and lasted only 15 minutes, but he did experience weightlessness. During the flight, he tested the capsule's attitude control system and retrorockets, which would be used to help future orbital missions land. He reached an altitude of 116 miles before he parachuted back down to Earth. The Freedom 7 space capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. The capsule tilted over onto its side after the landing, but it slowly turned itself upright after about a minute of bobbing in the water. Recovery teams arrived by helicopter and quickly helped him out of the water, and the mission was deemed a huge success.