On May 5, 1961, the carrier rocket „Redstone 3” puts the spacecraft - capsule „Freedom 7” on a ballistic trajectory for a suborbital space flight. The capsule reaches an altitude of approximately 186.5 kilometers and lands in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean 486 kilometers from the launch point. Unlike Yuri Gagarin, whose flight on April 12, 1961 was completely automatic, Alan Shepard has some control over „Freedom 7” - he can determine the position of the device, for example. The launch of the rocket is watched live on television by millions of viewers.
A little before the launch of “Redstone-3” Shepard says: "Don't fuck up, Shepard...".
After the flight, Alan Shepard prepared as Gordon Cooper's backup for the flight of “Mercury-Atlas 9”. His next flight was to be the three-day flight ”Mercury-Atlas 10”, scheduled for October 1963, but it was canceled on June 13, 1963.
After the canceled flight, Shepard was selected as commander and pilot of the first manned flight under the new space program ”Gemini”. The co-pilot was to be Thomas Stafford. Alan began training, but in early 1964, his doctors found inflammation of the middle ear, which prevented him from flying until the end of the 1960s. Virgil Grissom and John Young took the place of the planned Gemini 3 crew.
After successful ear surgery and restoration of his flying status in May 1969, Shepard returned to active training for new flights. He was assigned as commander of Apollo 13, but since he felt that he needed more training, he and his crew were exchanged with the crew of Apollo 14. With this mission, Alan Shepard became the 5th man to set foot on the Moon.