As soon as their re-entry capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, the trio was transferred to a mobile quarantine facility inside which they were transported to NASA Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center where they had access to a larger quarantine facility until thei...
They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. The three astronauts spent 18 days in quarantine to guard against possible contamination by lunar microbes. During the days that followed and during a tour of 21 nations, they were hailed for their part in the opening of a new era in ...
On May 5, 1961, Shepard made a 15-minute suborbital flight in theFreedom 7spacecraft, which reached analtitudeof 115 miles (185 km). The flight came 23 days after Soviet cosmonautYuri Gagarinbecame the first human to travel in space, but Shepard’s flight energized U.S. space efforts and...