Reflections
September 1, 1973
It started with a radio in 1961. A man named Gagarin. Coffee going cold. Twelve years later: twelve men on the Moon. I've been paying attention the whole time. I still am. I keep looking up. I keep thinking: next. What's next. Where do we go from here? I hope…
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Mercury
February 20, 1962
John Glenn orbited the Earth three times today. I took a half-day from work and watched on television. When his capsule came down in the Atlantic I realized I had been holding my breath for most of the last four hours. Three orbits. An American in orbit. Finally.
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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.
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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.
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January 31, 1961
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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