First American to orbit Earth

First American, also known as "Freedom 7," was the spacecraft that carried America's first man into space on May 5, 1961. Designed by NASA and built by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, it launched atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft was a small, single-person capsule that orbited Earth briefly, reaching a peak altitude of about 187 miles (301 km). Piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard, it marked the United States' initial step into human space exploration, proving that humans could venture beyond Earth's surface and safely return.