On May 5, 1961, Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft to become the first American to travel into space. The space mission dubbed Project Mercury was a single crew space flight piloted by Alan Shepard that reached an altitude of 263.1 nautical miles or 187.5 km that lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds.
Shepard's space travel achievement demonstrated his spacecraft's ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry back to Earth. This epic event became the springboard for the American space program to continue with the launching of Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961, by Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom and other Project Mercury missions by John H Glenn, Jr (2/20/62), M. Scott Carpenter (5/24/62), Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (10/3/62) and L. Gordon Cooper (5/15/63).
Although the United States' achievement to reach space was no small feat, the Soviet Union has kept its space program on par following the successful launch of its cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.
It wasn't until July 1969 when the American space program surpassed the Soviet Union with the launch of Apollo 11 with Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. landing their Lunar Module called Eagle on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969.