![cover of the May 8, 1961, edition of Aviation Week](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_freeform/public/2021-05/shepard_01-aw_05_08_1961_cover-awst_archive.jpg?itok=7CCHG0-m)
In preparation for the historic flight, NASA conducted an egress test of the Mercury-Redstone booster featured on the cover of the May 8, 1961, edition of Aviation Week. The astronaut would enter the capsule by riding an elevator to the third level of the Redstone gantry (background) and climbing through the trapezoidal hatch.
![Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin article](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_freeform/public/2021-05/shepard_02-aw_04_17_1961_p26-27-awst_archive.jpg?itok=UqpSCvIo)
One month earlier, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the planet. The Soviet Air Force major was quoted in Aviation Week as saying, “Now let all other countries catch up.” Gagarin’s challenge struck a chord with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who was also smarting from the Bay of Pigs diplomatic blunder. Kennedy began asking what the U.S. could do to leapfrog the Soviets, according to Mike Neufeld, curator in the Space History Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
![rocket for Shepard suborbital flight](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_freeform/public/2021-05/shepard_03-nasa.jpg?itok=p8CXAwpY)
NASA was already getting ready to launch Shepard on a 15-min. suborbital flight, which made him the first U.S. astronaut in space. The rocket was based on the Redstone ballistic missile technology developed by the team led by Wernher von Braun before it was transferred from the Army to NASA in 1960.
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