NASA: 50 Years in Photos

• Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. He launched aboard his Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket named Freedom 7--the suborbital flight lasted 15 minutes.
  
  
  
  
  

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• Project Mercury Astronauts, whose selection was announced on April 9, 1959, only six months after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formally established on October 1, 1958. Front row, left to right, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper.
  
  
  

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• A camera aboard the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft photographs Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during the Mercury-Atlas 6 spaceflight.
  
  
  

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• Orbital sunset photographed by Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. aboard the "Friendship 7" during his Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) flight.
  
  
  

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• Astronaut John Glenn relaxes aboard the USS Noa after being recovered from the Atlantic near Grand Turk Island after his historic Mercury flight. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February, 20, 1962 in his "Friendship 7" capsule. The Noa picked him up 21 minutes after impact.
  
  
  

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• Dr. Wernher von Braun explains the Saturn Launch System to President John F. Kennedy. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is to the left of von Braun.
  
  
  

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• White II, pilot for the Gemini-Titan 4 space flight, floats in space during America?s first spacewalk. The extravehicular activity (EVA) was performed during the Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965. White spent 23 minutes maneuvering around his spacecraft as Jim McDivitt remained inside the spacecraft. White is attached to the spacecraft by a 25-ft. umbilical line and a 23-ft. tether line, both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. In his right hand, White carries a Hand-Held Self Maneuvering Unit (HHSMU), which he used to help move him around the weightless environment of space. The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.
  
  
  

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• This 1964 NASA Flight Reserch Center photograph shows the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) Number 1 in flight at the South Base of Edwards Air Force Base. When Apollo planning was underway in 1960, NASA was looking for a simulator to profile the descent to the moon's surface. Three concepts emerged: an electronic simulator, a tethered device, and the ambitious Dryden contribution, a free-flying vehicle. All three became serious projects, but eventually the NASA Flight Research Center's (FRC) Landing Research Vehicle became the most important.
  
  
  

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• This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn.
  
  
  

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• One of the first steps taken on the Moon, this is an image of Buzz Aldrin's bootprint from the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
  
  
  

  NASA