Astronaut Al Shepard,above with Gus Grissom, made history 55 years ago nowadays as he launched in Freedom 7 atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket to become the first American in space. The rocket lofted Shepard using a 78000-pound thrust engine, or less powerful than the abort engine clusters in development by Boeing and SpaceX for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program spacecraft.
Source: nasa.gov