This film chronicles Freedom 7
(Mercury-Redstone 3, MR-3) ... the first manned spaceflight by the USA
that occurred on May 5, 1961 with Alan Shepard as the astronaut.
The Mercury project was to determine man's capabilities in a
space environment and in those environments to which he
would be subject upon going into and returning from space.
A
few of the basic flight problems included... The development
of an automatic escape system, vehicle control during
insertion, behavior of space systems, evaluation of pilots
capabilities in space, in flight monitoring, retrofire and
reentry maneuvers and landing and recovery.
Freedom 7
