The Explorers' Club, № DCCCVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone B.D.
24 March 1961: Mercury-Restone Booster Development—After the anomalous overperformance of the Redstone rocket during Mercury 2 (Ham the Astro Chimp), an additional test flight was ordered; astronaut Alan Shepard, et al., argued that the Mercury 2 Redstone's problems had been identified & corrected; rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, et al., argued that a perfect test flight was necessary.

Commentary: Had the Shepard faction prevailed over the von Braun faction, & the manned Mercury-Redstone 3 mission been flown instead of the Mercury-Redstone B.D., American astronaut Alan Shepard would have become the first man in space, beating the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the actual first man in space, by nearly three weeks.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Mercury-Redstone B.D.
The Phenomenauts, "Rocket Roll" from Re-Entry (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.