Alan Shepard said "Let's Light This Candle" three days after I was born...
The fact that he sat on top of a rocket that had yet to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt and actually wet his pants before it launched makes him the Number Two Hero in my book, Number One being Chuck Yeager.
If you've never read Yeager's book I strongly recommend you do so.
Anyway, I'm three days older than the American Manned Space Program. That makes me 50 tomorrow.
I was 11 for the Shepard flight. The wet pants were because he was stuck in the spacecraft for hours of delay, for what was a 15 minute sub-orbital flight. The only reason I saw the Glenn flight was because there was a big snow storm and school was cancelled.
Edited on Mon May-02-11 02:59 AM by Warren DeMontague
Yuri Gagarin had the presence of mind to pee outside the van on the way to the rocket. Lotta urine issues before they started working that into the suits.
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