On May 5 , 1961 which astronaut became the first American in space aboard " Freedom 7 " , launched by a Redstone booster on a 15 - minute ballistic ( suborbital ) flight ?
Shortly before the launch , Shepard said to himself : " Do n't fuck up , Shepard ... " According to Gene Kranz in his book , " Failure Is Not an Option " , " When reporters asked Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket , waiting for liftoff , he had replied , ' The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder .