63 Years Later: Reflecting on the Mercury-Redstone 3 Space Mission
May 6 was the launch of the Mercury-Redstone 3 space mission in 1961. This was the first U.S. mission to send a human being into space. Astronaut Alan Shepard was the first American to travel into space aboard the Freedom 7 capsule. This milestone marked a turning point in the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.