SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -The Soviets won the race in April 1961 when cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin completed a single orbit around the Earth aboard his Vostok capsule. On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space during a suborbital flight aboard his Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 .

Detailed explanation-2: -His Mercury capsule, which he named Freedom 7, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and landed in the Atlantic Ocean. Shepard was the first American in space-but not the first person. The U.S.S.R. had beaten the United States to space a month earlier on April 12, when Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

Detailed explanation-3: -On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American-and the second man-to travel in space when he launched a 15-minute, sub-orbital flight aboard NASA’s Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7.

Detailed explanation-4: -U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard joined the astronaut program in 1959. He became the first American and the second man in space on May 5, 1961, when he piloted the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 on a 490-kilometer (300-mile), 15-minute suborbital flight.