Space: Mercury-Redstone 3 (Launch)

American space mission, the first United States human spaceflight, 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 named his capsule Freedom 7, setting a precedent for the remaining six Mercury astronauts naming their spacecraft. The number 7 was included in the spacecraft name to honor the seven members of NASA's Astronaut Group 1, the Mercury 7. Shepard and his colleagues felt the name conveyed a sense of teamwork, instead of an individual achievement.

Shepard's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight which reached an altitude of 101.2 nautical miles (187.5 kilometers) and traveled a downrange distance of 263.1 nautical miles (487.3 kilometers). It was the third Mercury flight launched with the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, close to the Atlantic Ocean.