Mercury-Redstone 3 was a U.S. Mercury program human crewed space mission launched on May 5, 1961 using a Redstone rocket, from Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury spacecraft was named Freedom 7 which performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space as a result of this mission. The flight lasted less than 16 minutes and attained an altitude of just over 187 kilometr...
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Mercury-Redstone 3 was a U.S. Mercury program human crewed space mission launched on May 5, 1961 using a Redstone rocket, from Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury spacecraft was named Freedom 7 which performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space as a result of this mission. The flight lasted less than 16 minutes and attained an altitude of just over 187 kilometres (116 mi).
Unlike the earlier Soviet Vostok 1 flight, Shepard did not orbit the earth, but simply went up and down, which requires a less powerful rocket and simpler guidance. He did, however, become the first astronaut to safely return to Earth inside his vehicle. In the Vostok 1 mission, the Soviet cosmonaut parachuted out of his vehicle prior to landing. Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev criticized Freedom 7 as a mere 'flea hop' compared to the recent flight of Vostok 1 and its pilot Yuri Gagarin.
The Freedom 7 spacecraft had been delivered...
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