Spaceflight Insider
Matt Haskell
May 5th, 2021
Alan Shepard launches to become the first American in space during the Mercury-Redstone 3 Mission. Image: NASA
Sixty years ago today, on May 5, 1961, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard rocketed to space in his Mercury capsule to become the first American and the second human in space.
The surprise launch by the Soviet Union of the first artificial satellite called Sputnik 1 in October of 1957 sparked the newest front in the Cold War space. The race to see which country would dominate space was on. But first, humanity had to see if they could survive in space.
The Mercury Seven astronauts in their spacesuits (front row, left to right) Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. Credit : NASA
Donald K. “Deke” Slayton The Mercury 7 astronauts. Left to right: Gus Grissom, Deke Slayton, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra. Photo By Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
What was NASA’s Project Mercury?
NASA announced Project Mercury on 7 October 1958 as a new programme that would set in motion a boom in human spaceflight for the USA.
The project’s goals were to put a crewed spacecraft into orbit around Earth, observe and collect data on the mission, and then return the human crew to Earth safely.
At this point, very little was known about human spaceflight. Could a NASA astronaut be launched into orbit, manoeuvre and control the spacecraft in a weightless environment, and then successfully land back on Earth?