Story Posted on Apr 30, 2021 Office of Communications I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle? – Alan Shepard, May 5, 1961 On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. His historic mission in the Freedom 7 spacecraft came a little over three weeks after the Soviet Union successfully made Yuri Gagarin the first person in space. While Gagarin’s spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and included a single orbit around Earth, Shepard’s lasted only 15 minutes and was suborbital. Shepard’s mission was part of Project Mercury, NASA’s first human spaceflight program, and Shepard was part of a group of astronauts called the Mercury Seven.