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 ?
In August 1962 , they achieved an almost four - day record flight with Andriyan Nikolayev aboard Vostok 3 , and also conducted a concurrent Vostok 4 mission carrying Pavel Popovich .