Thursday, May 5, 2011

On This Day In History


On May 5, 1961 NASA astronaut Alan Shepard launched in his Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 to become the first American in space.

The Soviet Union had beaten the Americans to space a month earlier with the Vostok 1 flight of Yuri Gagarin.

Shepard’s achievement was much more modest than that of Gagarin, who attained complete Earth orbit and stayed aloft for 108 minutes. Shepard’s Mercury spacecraft made it only to suborbital space, reaching a peak altitude of 116 miles and a top speed of 5,180 mph. The flight lasted just 15 minutes before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean 302 miles from the Florida launch site.

The U.S. wouldn’t duplicate Gagarin’s feat for nearly a year, until John Glenn’s orbital flight in February 1962.

4 comments:

M. D. Jackson said...

That and a shiny spacesuit will get you a beer and a date in any bar in the country.

Kal said...

And with the handily installed flap, you need not change out of it to pee or ejaculate. Helmet on or off is of course optional depending on the level of your space suit fetish.

Arkhein said...

Off Topic, but I know of Dire Interest -> http://lltoon.blogspot.com/2011/05/tentacles-like-redheads-too.html?zx=c016d3340f37aa84

- Ark

Kal said...

Oh yeh, this is EXACTLY what I needed to see today. They are not beneath kicking a guy when he is down, those bulbheaded bastards. Thanks for the tip brother.