5 May 1961: Mercury 3 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying Alan Shepard (1923-1998), U.S.N. aboard the Mercury capsule Freedom 7 atop a Redstone rocket; he became the first American, & the second man, in space during the suborbital flight; the Freedom 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean & was recovered by crewmen from the U.S.S. Lake Champlain.
Wayback Machine: № DCCXLVII, "The Space Race—The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3"
Commentary: Shepard's suborbital flight came three weeks—twenty-three days—after Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight (12 April 1961, Vostok 1). Had Shepard's opinion prevailed & he launched atop the Mercury-Redstone Booster Development flight (24 March 1961) that proved the malfunctions of Ham the Astro-Chimp's Mercury 2 flight (31 January 1961) had indeed been corrected, Shepard would have beaten Gagarin into space by three weeks. Either way, though, Shepard's flight would have been suborbital & Gagarin's orbital; the United States would not launch an orbital flight 'til February 1962. That said, Shepard was the pilot of his spacecraft, while Gagarin was a passenger.
Semper exploro.
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