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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 3
Recorded mission coverage
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Mission brief
The flight at a glance.
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 manned flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.
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Planned timings relative to the target. These steps do not indicate live progress.
A flight sequence has not been published for this mission.