Mercury Spacecraft, Alan Shepard, 1961
NASA astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., peers out of the Project Mercury spacecraft in which he successfully completed the first Project Mercury suborbital flight. The first manned Mercury flight was a brief suborbital launch that took place on May 5, 1961. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule, launched from launch pad LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:34 EST. The entire flight, from liftoff to splashdown, lasted just fifteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Shepard flew 303 statute miles, landing in the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of the Bahamas. During his flight, Shepard reached a maximum altitude of statute miles and a maximum speed of 5,134 miles per hour.
Size: 3006px × 4200px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, ., 5, 7, 1961, 20th, 5th, administration, aeronautics, al, alan, america, american, astronaut, aviator, bartlett, bw, canaveral, cape, capsule, century, craft, event, exploration, famous, figure, flight, florida, freedom, important, manned, mercury, nasa, national, naval, notable, officer, people, person, personalities, personality, photo, photograph, pilot, program, project, science, shepard, space, spacecraft, spaceflight, states, suborbital, test, united, usa
