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Aren’t those Mercury spacesuits just the classiest thing you’ve ever seen?

itsfullofstars:

Alan Shepard was the second person, and the first American, in space.

On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. He was launched by a Redstone rocket, and unlike Gagarin’s 108 minute orbital flight, Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight—a flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles and to a landing point 302 statute miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. Unlike Gagarin, whose flight was strictly automatic, Shepard had some control of Freedom 7, spacecraft attitude in particular. The launch, return from space and subsequent collection by helicopter were seen live on television by millions.

Source: Wikipedia.

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jesuisperdu:

The above illustration (by Ed Emshwiller) is from the 1958 novel Have Space Suit – Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. The story centers around Kip, a young lad eager to get to the moon, but plagued by a mediocre public school system that fails to launch him into an academic trajectory likely to lead to Mare Tranquilllitatis. With a heapin’ helpin’ of hard work, and a dash of luck, Kip teaches himself Calculus, wins a space suit from a soap company and is abducted by aliens while wearing his space suit in his back yard. You might say “Gee whiz, thanks aliens!” but Kip ends up being sequestered to Pluto where he blows his captors up.

(via itsfullofstars)

kmikeym:

Space Helmet