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In The Beginning
As the Soviets continued their space efforts, the United States put the finishing touches on Project Mercury. The project’s goal was to put one astronaut into space. Less than a month after Gagarin’s flight, American astronaut Alan Shepherd flew into space, propelled by a Mercury Rcdstonc rocket. The following year, Ohioan John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.
Project Mercury was followed by Project Gemini, which allowed two astronauts to travel together in the same craft. During the Gemini flights, American astronauts walked in space and spent extended periods of time experiencing zero gravity. Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the first rendezvous and docking in space during the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. For thc first timc, two spacecraft — the Gemini and the Agena docking vehicle — joined together as they orbited the earth.
Scouting The Way
The findings of Project Gemini paved the way for the developing Project Apollo to advance. The goal of Apollo was to create the necessary rocketry to carry people to the moon. Tragically, three astronauts — Gus Grissom, Ed While and Roger Chaffee — lost their lives in 1967 when the interior of their Apollo I spacecraft caught fire on the launch pad.
After the spacecraft was redesigned and new safety precautions were added, Project Apollo was back on track. Apollo 7 was the first test of the Apollo command, and service modules sent three American astronauts into space for the first time.
Alan Shepard is pulled from the water by a Marine helicopter recovery team after the successful 1971 Mercury Redstone 3 flight. Shepard, one of only twelve men to stand on the moon, was almost passed over tor the trip due to an inner ear problem. After corrective surgery he was cleared to participate in the project. Shepard and lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell spent nine hours collecting rock and soil samples tram the moons surface. Betore returning to the command module kitty Hawk, Shepard, an avid golfer, hit two golf balls with a makeshift club. One went into a nearby crater, the other was hit cleanly into the moons one-sixth gravity where, Shepard said it traveled tor ‘miles and miles and miles.'
The rendezvous and docking of the Gemini with the Agena docking vehicle, shown here, had no other purpose than as an exercise to link two spacecrafts in space. While the docking was a success, the Gemini later made an emergency landing after a thruster malfunctioned.
On December 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first Americans to leave the bounds of earth and head toward the moon. The crew — Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and Cleveland, Ohio, native James Lovell — became the first humans to circle the moon and view an earthrise over the lunar surface. Although Apollo 8 did not land on the moon, it scouted the way.
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