Counting Down to Apollo — A Personal Record of the Space Race — Est. 1962

Counting Down to Apollo

One American's account of watching humanity reach the Moon

Tag: first

Alan Shepard Goes Up
Mercury May 5, 1961

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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The Russians Did It First
Mercury April 12, 1961

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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