when did the first american go to space
Alan Shepard
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II . He became a naval aviator in 1946 , and a test pilot in 1950 . He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959 , and in May 1961 he made the first manned Project Mercury flight , MR - 3 , in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7 . His craft entered space , but was not capable of achieving orbit . He became the second person , and the first American , to travel into space , and the first person to manually control the orientation of his spacecraft . In the final stages of Project Mercury , Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury - Atlas 10 ( MA - 10 ) , which was planned as a three - day mission . He named Mercury Spacecraft 15B Freedom 7 II in honor of his first spacecraft , but the mission was cancelled . 
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II . He became a naval aviator in 1946 , and a test pilot in 1950 . He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959 , and in May 1961 he made the first manned Project Mercury flight , MR - 3 , in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7 . His craft entered space , but was not capable of achieving orbit . He became the second person , and the first American , to travel into space , and the first person to manually control the orientation of his spacecraft . In the final stages of Project Mercury , Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury - Atlas 10 ( MA - 10 ) , which was planned as a three - day mission . He named Mercury Spacecraft 15B Freedom 7 II in honor of his first spacecraft , but the mission was cancelled .
In May 1961, Alan Shepard made the first manned Project Mercury flight , MR - 3 , in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7 . He became the second person , and the first American , to travel into space , and the first person to manually control the orientation of his spacecraft .
He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959 , and in May 1961 he made the first manned Project Mercury flight , MR - 3 , in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7 . He became the second person , and the first American , to travel into space , and the first person to manually control the orientation of his spacecraft .