More of This NASA Innovations Feature • Launching NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration • Early NASA Spaceflights: Mercury and Gemini • Going to the Moon - NASA Project Apollo • NASA Space Shuttle • The "First A in NASA:" Aeronautics Research • Applications Satellites

More Material on Rockets • The Evolution of Rockets - Timeline • The History of Rockets and Space Travel Innovations • Spacesuits

NASA's first high-profile program involving human spaceflight was Project Mercury, an effort to learn if humans could survive the rigors of spaceflight. On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space, when he rode his Mercury capsule on a 15-minute suborbital mission. John H. Glenn Jr. became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. With six flights, Project Mercury achieved its goal of putting piloted spacecraft into Earth orbit and retrieving the astronauts safely.

Project Gemini built on Mercury's achievements and extended NASA's human spaceflight program to spacecraft built for two astronauts. Gemini's 10 flights also provided NASA scientists and engineers with more data on weightlessness, perfected reentry and splashdown procedures, and demonstrated rendezvous and docking in space. One of the highlights of the program occurred during Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965, when Edward H. White, Jr., became the first U.S. astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.

Next page > Going to the Moon - NASA Project Apollo

Information and photos provided by
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of Policy and Plans
NASA History Office
by Stephen J. Garber and Roger D. Launius