Labels:text | screenshot | font | diagram OCR: FIRST AMERICAN IN SPACE ON MAY 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became astronaut 187 km (1 16 miles) high, and the second person to travel in space, landing in the sea 485 km (303 miles) and the first American, 4 weeks after from the launch site. Virgil Grissom Yury Gagarin's historic first spaceflight. repeated the feat 11 weeks later, but Shepard's Mercury capsule did not go had to be rescued when his capsule into orbit. It did a "hop," taking the started to sink on splashdown. A SHORT HOP Shepard's route Shepard's flight in Freedom 7 lasted just 15 minutes. For 5 of these he was weightless. Cape Canaveral Capsule lands in the Atlantic Ocean
