Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., May 5, 1961

Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. sits in his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule, ready for launch. Just 23 days earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first man in space. ''That little race between Gagarin and me,'' Shepard said, ''was really, really close.'' After several delays and more than four hours in the capsule, Shepard was ready to go,

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