National Astronaut Day

I learned something today. 

 

It’s National Astronaut Day - in recognition of United States first manned space flight. Who knew?

 

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely.

 

As a space/astronomy geek even more than six and a half decades ago I was allowed to miss school that morning so I could watch the launch and recovery on television.

 

I still remember it. Better than what I had to eat yesterday…..