It was about time, most Americans thought. If the Russians could successfully launch and safely return a manned space capsule from orbiting the earth, why not the U.S.? Except that Alan Shepard wasn't going to orbit the earth on May 5th. His mission was just to survive a launch, leave and reenter earth's atmosphere, and return safely to earth. His entire flight, from launch to landing, would take about 15 minutes.

While that may not sound like much by today's standards, it was an awesome undertaking at the time - and spellbinding for school children. It was also spellbinding for Shepard who had named his capsule "Freedom 7." At launch, his pulse rate jumped from 80 to 126.

Eighty-eight seconds after the Redstone rocket hurled him out of the earth's atmosphere, Shepard's head and helmet were shaking so hard he could not read the instruments on his control panel. Seconds later, he was "pulling six Gs" (the force of gravity times six), roughly half the g-forces (11.6) Shepard and his space capsule would endure minutes later during their reentry into earth's atmosphere. He was traveling at 5,134 miles per hour.

Stunned by what he saw 116.5 statute miles above earth, Shepard took pictures and exclaimed, "What a beautiful view!" Then, just as quickly as he had left earth, he returned to it. At 10,000 feet, his parachute activated and Freedom 7, with Shepard doing well, hit the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S.S. Lake Champlain was standing by with a helicopter to recover America's first man in space and the tiny capsule that had brought him there.

Nine months later, school children and their teachers once again watched another American first: John Glenn's launch to orbit the earth on February 20, 1962. His flight lasted just under 5 hours (4 hours, 55 minutes, 23 seconds) as he and his space capsule, "Friendship 7," (hurled into space by the more powerful Mercury-Atlas rocket) made three orbits around the earth. It wasn't as perfect as Alan Shepard's flight had been, however. At the time, Glenn (and the watching public) did not know how close he came to being lost in space.

Mercury Control Center was picking up a strange reading from the spacecraft. It appeared the heat shield was loose. In order for Glenn to safely reenter earth's atmosphere, he needed Friendship 7's heat shield to work. If it didn't, both Glenn and his space capsule would be destroyed during reentry.

As Glenn began his descent, everyone watching the telemetry and monitoring the tracking stations nervously watched their screens. Would the loose heat shield be able to withstand the tremendous forces as it returned to earth's atmosphere?

As he began reentry, Glenn reported sounds like "small things brushing against the capsule." Then he told mission control, "That's a real fireball outside." Later Glenn said he thought the heat shield might be disintegrating. It was the most stressful part of the flight for Glenn and one of the most critical moments in Project Mercury.

The heat shield held. By 17,000 feet above the ocean, Glenn's parachute was fully activated. When he landed in the Atlantic, he was only 40 miles short of the planned pickup site. He had traveled 75,679 statute miles in just under 5 hours, hurtling through space at a speed of 17,544 miles per hour.

Alan Shepard and John Glenn became American heroes. Project Mercury was a complete success, and President Kennedy's dream of a manned moon mission before the end of the decade seemed a little closer to reality.

But more triumphs, and tragedies, lay ahead. Ed White was about to experience both.