Mercury
May 26, 1961
President Kennedy told Congress we're going to the Moon. Before the decade is out. That's 1969, eight years from now. The Moon. My neighbor Harold says it's a waste of money. I told Harold that people probably said the same thing about Columbus. Harold said Columbus didn't cost four billion…
Read the full entry
Space Race
May 25, 1961
The President of the United States stood up in Congress today and said we are going to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before 1970.
Read the full entry
May 5, 1961
He went. He came back. He was in space for fifteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds, and the whole country stopped to watch.
Read the full entry
Mercury
May 5, 1961
An American is in space. Alan Shepard, Navy Commander and test pilot, rode Freedom 7 to the edge of space and back this morning. Fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. It wasn't an orbit — the Soviets did that weeks ago — but it was something. It was ours.
Read the full entry