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 ?
Gagarin spoke at night , while still over the Pacific , but only three minutes from the Straits of Magellan ; a little earlier he was near Hawaii , which had become one of the United States of America less than two years earlier .