Liberty Bell 7 Sinks
Gus Grissom flew his Mercury mission today, MR-4, and the flight itself was fine — but then the capsule sank.
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Before the Decade Is Out
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…
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Before This Decade Is Out
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.
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Alan Shepard, American
He went. He came back. He was in space for fifteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds, and the whole country stopped to watch.
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Alan Shepard Goes Up
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.
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Gagarin
They beat us. A Soviet man orbited the Earth today and I don't know how to feel about it except wrong-footed and shaken and strangely moved.
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The Russians Did It First
Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth this morning while I was eating breakfast. The radio announcer said it so matter-of-factly that for a second I thought I heard wrong. I put down my fork and turned up the volume. The Russians put a man in space. First.
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Ham the Chimp Goes to Space
They sent a chimpanzee today. His name is Ham, and he went to space and came back, and the whole thing worked.
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Echo 1 — The Big Balloon in the Sky
Echo 1 launched last week — a 100-foot aluminized balloon in orbit that reflects radio signals from Earth back to Earth. You can see it with the naked eye.
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The U-2 Affair
Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union yesterday in a U-2 spy plane. I don't know why I'm writing about this in a space notebook, but it feels connected.
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