The Astronauts: Flight of Freedom 7

Video from the channel NASA STI Program about Mercury-Redstone 3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 29:02. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

It is an episode of the series "The Astronauts," presented by Lynn Bondurant from NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland. It re-airs the film "The Flight of Freedom 7" about Alan B. Shepard's suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, the first crewed flight by the United States under Project Mercury. The account addresses the astronaut himself in the second person: it reviews the preparation that gave him confidence in the people, the systems, and himself, and ends with the launch, the flight, and the recovery.

The program recalls the selection of the seven astronauts from among hundreds of volunteers. It also reviews the nearly two years of training: hours in cockpit trainers, classes in astronautics and space mechanics, weightlessness flights, the centrifuge, manual control of pitch, roll, and yaw, and escape and survival training. It shows the manufacture of the Redstones at the Marshall Space Flight Center and of the capsules at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis. It also recalls the earlier flights with the chimpanzee Ham. MR-3 lifted off from Pad 5 at Cape Canaveral. Before the flight, the capsule was checked at Hangar S and in a pressure chamber simulating about 120,000 feet of altitude. It was then mated to the launch vehicle and the full mission was rehearsed. A review board gave its approval three days before launch.

The countdown was carried out over two days, lasting roughly four and a little over six hours, to reduce staff fatigue. The attempt on May 2 was scrubbed due to weather, and the flight lifted off on Friday, May 5. Gordon Cooper spoke with Shepard from the blockhouse, while Carpenter and Schirra followed the ascent from the air. According to the narration, MR-3 followed a ballistic arc with an apogee near 115 miles (about 185 km) and splashed down 300 miles (about 480 km) downrange. The flight lasted 16 minutes, with about five of weightlessness. Eleven minutes after splashdown, Shepard and the capsule were already aboard the Lake Champlain, and the president congratulated him on behalf of the nation.