Space History Photo: Dr. Wernher von Braun and Astronaut Cooper

By NASA Archives
published

space history photo, freedom 7, mr-3, alan shepard
A scene from the blockhouse during the Freedom 7 recovery operation. (Image credit: NASA.)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, Dr. Wernher von Braun and Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper are in the blockhouse during the recovery operation of MR-3 (Freedom 7) mission on May 5, 1961. The MR-3 mission, a 15-1/2 minutes sub-orbital test flight, put the first American, Astronaut Alan Shepard, in space.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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NASA Archives
NASA Archives
U.S. Space Agency

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