What is Mercury-Redstone 3?
'''Mercury-Redstone 3''', or '''''Freedom 7''''', was the first [[United States]] [[Space exploration|human spaceflight]], on May 5, 1961. It was piloted by [[astronaut]] [[Alan Shepard]]. It was the first flight with people of [[Project Mercury]]. The project had the objective of putting an astronaut into [[orbit]] around the Earth and returning him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute [[Sub-orbital spaceflight|suborbital]] flight with the primary goal of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high [[G-Force|g-forces]] of launch and [[Atmospheric re-entry|re-entry]]. [[Category:1961 in the United States]] [[Category:NASA]] [[Category:1960s in spaceflight]] {{sci-stub}}