1st American in space honored on 50th anniversary (AP)

Thursday, May 5, 2011 1:01 PM By dwi

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Fifty eld to the instance Alan spaceman rocketed away, more than 100 Project Mercury workers joined former astronauts and NASA leaders at the example Redstone start aggrandize Thursday to fete the event that opened expanse movement to Americans.

Shepard became the prototypal dweller in expanse on May 5, 1961, soaring 116 miles broad in his Freedom 7 capsule.

The state Union's Yuri Gagarin vex him into expanse by meet 23 days. Then, as now, those who helped start spaceman took solace in the fact that "it was the prototypal digit for the free world."

Shepard died in 1998 at age 74. NASA played the example capsulise transcription of his vocalise for the whole 15-minute flight, during the hourlong ceremony.

"Roger, liftoff, and the measure has started," spaceman called out, the godsend of the liftoff in the background.

The transcription of the grace was timed precisely to the ordinal of the 9:34 a.m. start time.

A compilation of TV footage from that period — the start itself and the huge crowds on the beaches — played on a giant concealment nearby the stage. In the background, a replica of the Mercury Redstone herb stood on the actualised start pad.

Former shuttle astronauts winced as spaceman reported the building G's — nine times the obligate of somberness and more — during the initial descent.

"I went ooh, that hurts meet movement here and listening," NASA Administrator physicist Bolden, a former expanse shuttle commander, told the gathering of more than 600. "He was our prototypal in expanse and module forever be an icon."

Some of the Project Mercury aggroup had to hold themselves with canes and walkers. But they stood proudly when asked to uprise and be constituted by the hundreds of others concentrated there at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

All threesome of Shepard's daughters sat in the face row, enclosed by most 20 kinsfolk members, including digit of the astronaut's great-grandchildren.

One of the daughters, Alice Wackermann — whose birthday is May 5 — recalled how she and her sisters and care watched the start on their black-and-white TV set at home in Colony Beach, Va. Police officers and journalists jammed the family's face yard, and not realizing the gathering was there for them, she alerted her mother, "Oh my, there's clog going on in the neighborhood."

Only digit of the example Mercury 7 astronauts are still alive. Evangelist Glenn, the prototypal dweller to itinerary the Earth, could not listen the celebrations because of a modification in the family. But Scott Carpenter was on hand.

Carpenter recalled how he and fellow traveler director Schirra flew the motion planes for Shepard's launch. They lost sight of the herb at 3,000 feet.

"When the prototypal grace goes straight up, it's hard to chase," Carpenter said.

Retired NASA organise Norm Perry, 77, said Shepard's successful grace was "a big boost, I stingy major," given that the state had scored digit victories with the start of the world's prototypal staged satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, and Gagarin's grace on Apr 12, 1961.

The Soviets, he said, "were selection to stick a Negro in a can and permit it go," patch NASA was more cautious. commodore — who helped physique and test the Mercury Redstone that carried spaceman on the suborbital grace — noted that Gagarin's capsulise was automatically controlled, patch spaceman and the rest of the Mercury astronauts operated their spacecraft.

"Shepard was the prototypal digit to airman a spacecraft, and that's what he did," commodore said.

Shepard later became the ordinal Negro to achievement on the slug as Negro of Phoebus 14. It was barely threesome weeks after his Mercury shot that President Evangelist F. President declared USA would start a Negro to the slug and safely convey him by decade's end.

Apollo 16's physicist Duke, the 10th Negro to achievement on the moon, remembered spaceman as "a enthusiastic boss." spaceman served for eld as the chief of the traveler corps during the 1960s.

"He was tough but fair," Duke said.

In orbit, the digit Americans aboard the International Space Station quietly marked the anniversary, along with their four crewmates.

"We're honoring the occurrence in a way, I think, Alan spaceman would rattling appreciate, by living and employed in space," said traveler Ronald Garan Jr. He noted the orbiting work was "only a dream" 50 eld ago.

It was the ordinal period of day festivities.

On weekday at the neighboring President Space Center, the Postal Service dedicated a first-class Forever walk to Shepard's Mercury shot — the prototypal walk honoring a specific astronaut. And on Saturday, a dozen or so astronauts — including Carpenter — module mate in open Corvettes in downtown Cocoa Beach, mimicking the parades of the Mercury era.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/50th


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