history lesson

51 years ago tomorrow, Alan Shepard became the first American to go into outer space! 

Alan Shepard

Project Mercury was the first United States human space program.  Shortly after NASA was formed on October 1, 1958, Project Mercury was announced and a nationwide hunt was underway for the 7 best men to become the first American Astronauts, known as the Mercury 7.  Hundreds of men underwent months of grueling physical and mental challenges.  The best account of these tests has been captured in the movie The Right Stuff.  There is also a great book called The Mercury 13:The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight by Martha Ackmann telling about the fight women were going thru to be apart of this first space program.  They had to undergo the same physical and mental tests as the men, and some say they did better than the men, but in 1961, women were not treated equally and none of them were chosen. 

Jerrie Cobb with a Mercury capsule

John Glenn, the third American in space, spoke before the House Space Committee in July 1962, in favor of excluding women from the NASA Astronaut Progam.  He later changed his views, but no female astronaut flew on a NASA mission until Sally Ride in 1983, and none piloted a mission until Eileen Collins in 1995, more than 30 years after the hearings.

The Mercury 7

The Space Race began in 1957 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (USSR).  A byproduct of the Cold War, the U.S. and the USSR focused on becoming preeminent in space exploration, which the government deemed necessary for national security.  We were also trying to prove technological and ideological superiority.

The Space Race effectively began when USSR launched Sputnik I on October 4, 1957.  This was the first artificial satelite in Earth orbit.  (The moon is considered a natural satelite.) They also beat us in putting the first human into space.  Yuri Gagarin reached Earth orbit on April 12, 1961.  He later died in 1968 in a MiG 15 training jet crash.   

Sputnik I

Yuri Gagarin

 

On April 20 1961, a little over a week after Gagarin's flight, President John F. Kennedy asked Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to determine the state of America's space program, and find a way for NASA to catch up. Johnson's response concluded that the U.S. needed to do much more in order to "win" the Space Race.  Johnson recommended that a piloted moon landing program was far enough in the future that it was likely that the United States could achieve it first.

On May25, 1961, Kennedy announced his support of the Apollo program and redefined the ultimate goal of the Space Race: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

JFK's Moon Speech

The Redstone booster carrying Mercury astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:34 a.m. Eastern on May 5, 1961. His 15 minute sub-orbital flight lifted him to an altitude of over 116 miles and a maximum speed of 5,134 miles per hour. Shepard had become the first American in space.
CREDIT: NASA



The goal was essentially to see if we could do it!  We'd sent a few monkeys/chimps up before humans, but you just never know what will happen! This first flight laid the ground work for the first orbital flight made by John Glenn, who later became the oldest man in space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery at the age of 77 in 1998!  And for the Gemini and Apollo programs.  Gemini taught us more about our capabilities in space and Apollo achieved JFK's goal of "landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth" before the decade was out!  It only took 10 years from the beginning of the idea of putting man in outer space to putting a man on the moon.  That, I believe, is this country's greatest achievement, still not outdone 50 years later!

Alan Shepard also became the Commander of Apollo 14, being the only astronaut to fly in the Mercury and Apollo Programs.  While on the moon, this avid golfer tried his swing in the 1/6th gravity of the moon, the 2 golf balls he hit are still up there! He died of leukemia in 1998.

Interest in the early Space Programs is want got me into collecting vintage!  My first vintage purchase was a Project Mercury letter opener, in the original box.  I still have this and cherish it to this day.  I also have many vintage Astronomy and Aerospace books, it is fun for me to go back and read thru them and see how far we have come with technology. 

What got you into collecting vintage?