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One of the few grainy images of Shepard, acquired during his brief moments of weightlessness. Photo Credit: NASA “A damn fine month,” actor Morgan Freeman’s character Ellis “Red” Redding remarked in the movie Shawshank Redemption and, indeed, for America’s space program, the month of May—newly dawned—has long been a historic one for off-the-planet U.S. […] 
“A long way, but we’re here,” were Shepard’s figuratively and literally appropriate words when he became the fifth man to set foot on the Moon. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty years ago, as the United States and the world stood on the cusp of launching the first humans to the surface of another world, a […] 
Through a combination of enthusiasm for space exploration and political need, President John F. Kennedy’s speech on 25 May 1961 defined his short-lived administration. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty-five years ago, this week, John Fitzgerald Kennedy—35th President of the United States—gave a speech before Congress which, arguably, defined not only his administration, but also […] 
On 25 May 1961, President John F. Kennedy made one of the most remarkable speeches in U.S. political history, by setting his nation on a course to land a man on the Moon. Photo Credit: NASA When we think of heroes in the early Space Age, our minds are naturally drawn to the […] 
Shepard’s 15-minute flight offered him a few minutes of weightlessness and a few minutes to glimpse the grandeur of Earth from space. He was only the second human being to leave the Home Planet. Photo Credit: NASA In the half-hour between 9:30 and 10 a.m. EDT on 5 May 1961, the United States […] 
Alan Shepard (left) and John Glenn were assigned as prime and backup pilots for America’s first mission into space. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty-five years ago, in the early hours of 5 May 1961, America prepared to launch its first man into space. Navy Cmdr. Alan Shepard would fly a suborbital flight—rising from Pad […] 
In early 1961, the Mercury Seven were ready to begin the United States’ first missions into space. However, the need to conduct a final unpiloted Mercury-Redstone mission caused America to lose the race to beat the Soviet Union into space. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty-five years ago, next week, on 24 March 1961, the […] One of the earliest rockets to be launched from Cape Canaveral was the Army’s Redstone missile, which later evolved into the vehicle seen here delivering America’s first man into space. Photo Credit: NASA More than five decades have now passed since one of the most unfortunate episodes in human spaceflight history. In late […] 
From NASA: “Katherine Johnson sits at her desk with a globe, or ‘Celestial Training Device.’” Johnson’s work as a research mathematician contributed to NASA’s successes from the Mercury to the Shuttle programs, and beyond. Photo Credit: NASA Decades before astronaut Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman to soar into space, and a […] Faith 7 descends to a splashdown on 16 May 1963, after Project Mercury’s longest mission of 34 hours. Photo Credit: NASA Early on 14 May 1963, a hotshot pilot lay on his back in a tiny capsule, atop a converted ballistic missile, and steeled himself to be blasted into space. On Project Mercury’s […] |
 Next Launch Starlink 7 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFB, FL scheduled for: 4 Jun 20 at 1:25 GMT 3 Jun 20 at 9:25pm Eastern 
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