SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space during a suborbital flight aboard his Mercury capsule named Freedom 7. Three weeks later, based on the success of Shepard’s brief flight, President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to achieving a lunar landing before the end of the decade.

Detailed explanation-3: -Alan Shepard Jr., a Navy Commander and one of NASA’s first seven astronauts, became the first American to travel into space on May 5, 1961.

Detailed explanation-4: -Shepard gets selected “Not because of the fame or the recognition, ‘’ Shepard once said, “but because America’s best test pilots went through this selection process, down to seven guys, and of those seven, I was the one to go.”

Detailed explanation-5: -Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon at age 47.

Detailed explanation-6: -Shepard, Jr., in full Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., (born November 18, 1923, East Derry, New Hampshire, U.S.-died July 21, 1998, Monterey, California), first U.S. astronaut to travel in space.

Detailed explanation-7: -The US space program reached *** monumental milestone on May 5, 1961 when NASA sent the first American into space. Alan Shepherd was the only astronaut aboard the freedom seven space capsule when it launched from Cape Canaveral Florida.