Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 May 7
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                          Mercury-Redstone 3 Launch
                            Image Credit: [3]NASA

   Explanation: Sixty years ago, near the [4]dawn of the space age, NASA
   controllers "lit the candle" and sent [5]Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard
   arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. His [6]cramped space capsule
   was dubbed Freedom 7. Broadcast live to a global television audience,
   the historic [7]Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) spacecraft was launched from
   Cape Canaveral Florida at 9:34 a.m. Eastern Time on May 5, 1961. [8]The
   flight of Freedom 7, the first space flight by an American, followed
   less than a month after the first human venture into space by Soviet
   Cosmonaut [9]Yuri Gagarin. The 15 minute sub-orbital flight achieved an
   altitude of 116 miles and a maximum speed of 5,134 miles per hour.
   [10]As Shepard looked back near the peak of Freedom 7's trajectory, he
   could see the outlines of the west coast of Florida, Lake Okeechobe in
   central Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bahamas. Shepard would
   later [11]view planet Earth from a more distant perspective and walk on
   the Moon as commander of the [12]Apollo 14 mission.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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    Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([27]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply.
              [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2105/6100884MR3.jpg
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/toc.htm
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/60-years-ago-alan-shepard-becomes-the-first-american-in-space
   6. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/mercury.html
   7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3
   8. https://www.nasa.gov/images/alan-shepard-freedom7
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110412.html
  10. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch11-4.htm
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210429.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210204.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210506.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210507
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210508.html
  24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/