The First American to reach space, Alan Shepard on Freedom 7, May 5, 1961.

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States manned spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. Shephard became the second human and first American to reach space. Freedom 7 was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute sub-orbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.

Shepard named his space capsule Freedom 7, setting a precedent for the remaining six Mercury astronauts naming their spacecraft. The number 7 was included in all the crewed Mercury spacecraft names to honor NASA's first group of seven astronauts.