Another Fiftieth: An American in Space

Fifty years ago, on 5 May 1961, Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., of the U.S. Navy, squeezed aboard a spacecraft he'd named Freedom 7, atop a Redstone rocket. It lofted him 185 kilometers into the blackness of space.

The Soviets were still ahead, but we were now in the race. I cheered.


Photo by Ralph Morse, copyright 1961 by Time, Inc.

Don't rush, Commander, I'm sure the flight won't leave without you...

Photo by Ralph Morse, copyright 1961 by Time, Inc.
Much later, Shepard would walk on another world.