Alan Shepard made history on May 5, 1961, as the first American to travel into space, aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7. His suborbital flight, which came just a few weeks after Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight, ignited a fierce sense of competition and pride that would fuel the U.S. efforts in the ensuing Space Race. Shepard’s 15-minute journey not only demonstrated America’s capabilities in space exploration but also embodied the adventurous spirit and technological ambition of an entire nation during the Cold War era.
