Mercury turns 50

May 5th 1961, America sends its first man into space. Three weeks after Soviet Yuri Gagarin was the first man to orbit the earth, Alan Shepard and Freedom 7 take a fifteen minute ride into space, splashing down some 300 miles away from Cape Canaveral.
Three weeks Later President Kennedy announces to the world that America will send men to the moon before the end of the decade.
It's almost ten months before John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the planet.

Fifty years already, wow! When I first saw the topic title, I thought you were refering to the temps up here in Seattle.

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes

Not that it doesn't still take balls to go up in the decaying and soon to be retired shuttle, the Mercury astronauts were true cowboys.

I had the honor of meeting John Glenn at a black tie function. His Mercury Capsule had a strap break that helped to hold on the heat shield. They had no idea if he was going to burn up on reentry.

In my opinion, putting men on the moon (several times) is still America's greatest achievement EVER. No other country has been able to do it. And the technological advances that were made in the Mercury/ Gemini/Apolo programs made possible some of technology we take for granted today.

Now, if we could get mankind to Mars.........but I realize that because of the astronomical (pun intended) amounts of money involved, and our budget deficit woes, the only way that is going to happen is through an international effort, but I'm cool with that.

Alas, the vast majority of our forum members (myself included) will not be around to celebrate when it happens. But it WILL happen, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

Shepard is also famous in the space program for a prayer:

Dear Lord, please don't let me F@#k up.

This is known as Shepards prayer.