OTD in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Sixty years on, AmericaSpace looks back on his remarkable achievement. […]
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On the 60th anniversary of the flight of Ham the Chimp, we remember one of America’s unsung heroes of the early Space Race. […] 
Dragon Endeavour rises from historic Pad 39A on Saturday evening. The Falcon 9 is now the seventh American-made booster to have lofted American astronauts to space in almost six decades. Photo Credit: Mike Killian/AmericaSpace Last month, America observed 59 years since Alan Shepard became the nation’s first man in space. Tucked inside his tiny […] 
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. […] 
Al Shepard is hoisted aboard the helicopter, deftly piloted by Wayne Koons, after completing his 15-minute suborbital flight. The patch of fluorescent green marker dye in the water around Freedom 7 is particularly obvious. Photo Credit: NASA In the half-hour between 9:30 and 10 a.m. EDT on this day in 1961, the United States […] 
The “Mercury Seven”, pictured in an early training photograph. From left to right are Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Wally Schirra, Al Shepard and Deke Slayton. Photo Credit: NASA Best known as the residence of the fourth First Lady of the United States, on this day in 1959 the Dolley […] 
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 Sixty years ago, this week, a weapon of war became a rocket for space. On 8 January 1959, the U.S. […] 
On the deck of the U.S.S. Lake Champlain, Alan Shepard checks out the interior of Freedom 7 – the vehicle which had protected him from the rigours of a launch and high-G acceleration, had kept him alive and well in the most hostile environment ever encountered by humanity and sustained him throughout a […] 
On the 50th anniversary of their loss, America remembers the sacrifice of (from left) Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Photo Credit: NASA At 6:31 p.m. EST on Friday, 27 January 1967, as night fell over Cape Kennedy in Florida, one of the worst disasters ever to befall America’s space program […] 
This was one of the final views of Liberty Bell 7 on 21 July 1961, before it was lost beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Not until 1999, more than three decades after Grissom’s death, would the sunken capsule be returned to the surface. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Fifty-five years […] |
 Next Launch OFT-2 on a Atlas V 421 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFB, FL Launch Date to be determined. Click here for more details...  NASA SLS : Artemis 1 mission launching late 2021 from Kennedy Space Center. Click HERE for more information.  |
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