From: Scott Holland [Email him]
Something to celebrate this May 5th—America’s conquest of space:
Other than the pseudo-holiday from Mexico (or LA), we Americans have something to really commemorate. From Wikipedia:
On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space.He was launched by a Redstone rocket, and unlike Gagarin's 108-minute orbital flight, Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory—a 15-minute suborbital flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles (187 km) and to a splashdown point 302 statute miles (486 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range unlike Gagarin, whose flight was strictly automatic, Shepard had some control of Freedom 7, spacecraft attitude in particular. The launch was seen live on television by millions.
We could've been to Mars by now...
Thank you for your great work.
Scott Holland lives in the formerly great state of California.
