Following the Soviet Unions launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, as the first human in space, the race for space with the U.S. reached a pace that would run to the completion of the NASAs Apollo manned lunar landing program in 1975.

Needing to address the Soviet success, the U.S. launched astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight into space May 5, 1961, as part of the Mercury Program.

The Redstone rocket on flight MR-3 was used for one other Mercury mission before more a more powerful Atlas rocket allowed for Mercury capsules to obtain orbit. Unlike the Soviet Vostok-1 with Gagarin, Shepard was able to control the Mercury capsule, named Freedom 7. Subsequent Mercury capsules would also be given names, each ending in 7.

Wernher von Braun, an ex-Nazi engineer working for the Army missile program in Huntsville, Ala., developed the Redstone rocket. It was the result of an unsuccessful struggle to develop Vanguard rockets in an urgent push to deploy satellites, and now the first U.S. astronauts.

The Redstone was not capable of reaching orbital flight. Later, von Braun would develop the Saturn V, which would carry astronauts to the moon.

According to Gene Krantz, a NASA flight director, Shepard was asked for his thoughts while waiting for liftoff.

He famously replied: The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.

Freedom 7s flight lasted 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 116 miles. Shepard, from his vantage point said, What a beautiful view.

His capsule then began a re-entry into Earths atmosphere and splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean about 302 miles from the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Trajectory calculations for this mission were performed by Katherine Johnson, a mathematician whose story is told in the recent movie Hidden Figures.

Shepard was from East Derry, N.H., and attended the U.S. Naval Academy. He began his military career during World War II aboard the destroyer USS Cogswell and served in the Battle of Okinawa.

After the war, he trained to fly F4U Corsair fighters aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. Later he participated in the Navys test pilot school and took part in the development of in-flight refueling.

Over time Shepard built up an impressive record that led to an instructor role at the test pilot school. To progress further, he attended the Naval War College. At this point he had amassed 3,600 hours of flying, including 1,700 hours in jet aircraft.

As the space race heated up, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized recruitment of astronauts, who would originate from the cadre of military test pilots. Through a process involving numerous candidates, the competitive Alan Shepard became a member of the Mercury Seven, the original group of American astronauts. With him, and the missions they flew, were John Glenn (Friendship 7), Gus Grissom (Liberty Bell 7), Wally Shira (Sigma 7), Gordon Cooper (Faith 7), and Scott Carpenter (Aurora 7). Another member of the seven, Deke Slaton, was prevented from space flight in the Mercury Program due to a temporary medical condition but was made NASAs flight crew operations director from 1963-72.

Following his spaceflight, Shepard in 1963 would become chief of the Astronaut Office, overseeing astronaut training and mission selection. He developed an ear problem that grounded him until a surgery that restored him to astronaut status. Among his later missions in space was the of commander in the 1971 Apollo 14 mission to the moon.

Alan Shepard died in California in 1998.

Former Walla Wallan Craig Dreher is a space travel enthusiast and helicopter pilot who now lives in Albany, N.Y., where he works in information technology. He holds a masters of science in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. He and Terry P. Bolt write Space Tourists columns for the Union-Bulletin. Comments to them are welcome at spacewwub@gmail.com.

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1961 Freedom 7 flight keeps pace in space race - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin