On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space in the Mercury MR-3 capsule. He named it Freedom 7, the number signifying the seven Mercury astronauts; NASA called the mission ...

The Air and Space Museum currently displays Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule that launched John Glenn on the United States' first orbital mission in February 1962, in its "Milestones of Flight" ...