"Light this Candle": Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first American in space | Scholars and Rogues
source: http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2011/05/05/light-this-candle/
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While Shepard’s flight was only a jog compared to Gagarin’s, it had plenty of drama. The US was trailing the Soviets in rocket technology and the previous two launches (one with a dummy astronaut) had gone off course and subsequently had to be destroyed. No one at NASA could say for certain that Shepard might not go the way of his mannequin predecessor.
