Alan Shepard, 1923-1998: The First American to Fly in Space
13 May 2011
Alan Shepard being lifted to a helicopter from his space capsule after it landed in the Atlantic ocean following his suborbital flight.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Each week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space.
MISSION CONTROL: “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four three, two, one, zero. Liftoff!"
SHEPARD:"Ah Roger, liftoff and the clock has started."
MISSION CONTROL: [unintelligible]
SHEPARD: “Yes sir, reading you loud and clear. This is Freedom Seven. The fuel is go, one point two g, cabin at 14 psi, oxygen is go!”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The clock has started. With those words, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. He was in a small spacecraft called Freedom Seven. It was on top of a huge rocket traveling at more than eight thousand kilometers an hour.
Alan Shepard monitors communications between the Apollo 13 spacecraft and Mission Control Center on April 14, 1970
Fifteen minutes later, Freedom Seven came down in the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Shepard was a national hero. He had won an important victory for the United States. The date was May fifth, nineteen sixty-one. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a tense competition for world influence. And this competition was reaching even into the cold darkness of space.
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