Despite budget setbacks, the losses of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia, and withering public support, NASA continues to pursue manned space flight.
Fifty years ago today, 5 May, 1961, American Navy Pilot Alan Shepard strapped a Redstone rocket to his back and
made his short jaunt some 115 miles or so into near-Earth orbit, going downrange some ~300 miles over the course of his ~15 minutes flight. In so doing, he opened the fledgling space agency's Manned Spaceflight program.
Bravo Zulu, Admiral Shepard; Rest in Peace, we remember.