"Can we do this?"
That was the question being asked by everybody from President Kennedy in the Oval Office, down to Lt. Commander Alan B. Shepard sitting atop Mercury-Redstone 3 at Cape Canaveral.
With a total time of 15 minutes, 22 seconds from liftoff to splashdown, Shepard became the second human and the first American into space.
Shortly before the launch, Shepard fervently whispered "Please, dear God, don't let me fuck up."
This has since become known among American astronauts as "Shepard's Prayer."
When reporters asked Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied,
"The fact that this launch vehicle is seven stories high, and everything below me was built by the lowest bidder."
Liftoff - May 5, 1961:
