Freedom 7 Splashdown & Recovery Poster

This photo depicts the recovery of the Freedom 7 (MR-3) capsule by a U.S. Marine helicopter. The MR-3 mission successfully placed the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard, in space for 15-1/2 minutes and returned safely to Earth on May 5, 1961. Mercury Redstone 3 (MR-3, also designated Freedom 7) was the first flight of an American rocket with a human on board (Alan B. Shepard, Jr.), occurring twenty-three days after Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight of Vostok 1. The objectives of MR-3 were to: (1) familiarize man with a brief but complete space flight experience, including the lift-off, powered flight, weightless flight (approximately 5 minutes), re-entry, and landing phases of the flight; (2) evaluate man's ability to perform as a functional unit during space flight by demonstrating manual control of spacecraft attitude before, during, and after retrofire and by use of voice communications during flight; (3) study man's physiological reactions during space flight; and, (4) recover the astronaut and spacecraft.