Mercury Freedom 7 - 60th Anniversary Mouse Pad
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The first United States manned spacecraft was Freedom 7, which launched on May 5, 1961 and carried astronaut Alan Shepard over 100 miles into space on suborbital flight that lasted just over 15 minutes. The rocket was Mercury-Redstone 3, an upgraded version of the Redstone ballistic missile. The capsule containing the astronaut then re-entered the atmosphere, deployed parachutes and landed in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. Project Mercury began 60 years of human spaceflight that will continue far into the future.