APOD: 2021 May 7 - Mercury Redstone 3 Launch

Thanks, I remember that very well.

Thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Friday, May 7, 2021 entitled "Mercury-Redstone 3 Launch."

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

For sixty years old this is a great picture of a significant event.

APOD Background
"Explanation: Sixty years ago, near the dawn of the space age, NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. His cramped space capsule was dubbed Freedom 7. Broadcast live to a global television audience, the historic Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida at 9:34 a.m. Eastern Time on May 5, 1961. 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 Yuri Gagarin. The 15 minute sub-orbital flight achieved an altitude of 116 miles and a maximum speed of 5,134 miles per hour. 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 view planet Earth from a more distant perspective and walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 14 mission.

In a play on words, since another name for mercury is quicksilver and Mercury was a messenger in mythology :-)

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Fresh Air - Live Audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSHmptZy3Oo

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen LTC (Join to see)MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Sgt Albert Castro PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSG Samuel Kermon SSG Franklin Briant A1C Riley SandersSPC Michael Oles SR TSgt David L. Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Tom Burns SGT Denny Espinosa 1SG Fred "SARGE" Bucci SPC Nancy Greene SMSgt Tom Burns

Wow, I was going on 4 years old when they launched Alan Shepard into space Maj William W. 'Bill' Price , have a great RED Friday sir.