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 ?
He was launched by a Redstone rocket , and unlike Gagarin 's 108 - minute orbital flight , Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory — a 15 - minute suborbital flight which carried him to an altitude of and to a splashdown point down the Atlantic Missile Range .