50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF ALAN SHEPARD’S MERCURY 3 - FREEDOM 7 FLIGHT
50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF ALAN SHEPARD’S MERCURY 3 - FREEDOM 7 FLIGHT
This embroidered emblem design honors the men and women of Project Mercury in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the program – 1961 – 2011!
Mercury-Redstone 3 was a U.S.Mercury programmanned space mission launched on May 5, 1961 using a Redstone rocket, from Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury spacecraft was named Freedom 7 which performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space. The flight lasted less than 16 minutes and attained an altitude of just over 187 kilometres (116 mi).
Unlike the earlier Soviet Vostok 1 flight, Shepard did not orbit the Earth, but simply went up and down in a ballistic trajectory which required a less-powerful rocket and simpler guidance. He did, however, become the first astronaut to safely return to Earth inside his vehicle. In the Vostok 1 mission, pilot Yuri Gagarin parachuted from his vehicle prior to landing.