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Project Mercury: American astronaut Alan Shepard (pictured) made a sub-orbital spaceflight on board Freedom 7, becoming the second person to travel into outer space.
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Project Mercury
Initial American crewed spaceflight program (1958–1963)
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the U.S. Air…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Alan Shepard
American astronaut and lunar explorer (1923–1998)
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, at age 47.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Sub-orbital spaceflight
Spaceflight where the spacecraft does not go into orbit
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will not become an artificial satellite nor…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Mercury-Redstone 3
First United States human spaceflight (1961)
Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Outer space
Void between celestial bodies
Outer space, or simply space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere and between celestial bodies. It contains ultra-low levels of particle densities, constituting a near-perfect vacuum of predominantly hydrogen and helium plasma, permeated by electromagnetic…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)