May 5 1961
From The Space Library
Freedom 7, manned Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., as pilot, was launched from Cape Canaveral by Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115.696 miles and a range of 302 miles. It was the first American manned space flight. Shepard demonstrated that man can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and flight lasted 14.8 minutes.
Click here to listen to the audio of Alan Shepard's historic flight.
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Saturn static firing of 44.17 seconds' duration to test-fire detection system at engine position No. 2 was successful, the second SA-1 flight qualification test at Marshall Space Flight Center.
In-house testing of Ranger I spacecraft completed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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