Who was the first American astronaut?

The first American astronaut and the second person in the universe in general was Alan Shepard, Jr. Like most of the first astronauts, Shepard was admitted to NASA from the Navy, where he was a test pilot for an experimental vessel with a high altitude. In the 1950s, F3H, F8U Crusader, F4D Skyray and F11F Tiger, F5D Skylancer flew over 8,000 hours of flying time 3,700 hours on aircraft. Before he left to join NASA to become an astronaut, he was an instructor at the test pilot school. It was part of the Mercury project and the elite group became known as Mercury Seven and flew a historical series of Mercury missions. They are trying to beat the Russians into space from Sputnik , the US planned to enter the pioneering astronaut Shepard in October 1960, but the project was delayed due to the need for unplanned preparatory work. Not only did the Soviets defeated the Americans by creating the first satellite, now they have now launched the first human astronaut.

6 capsules were launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida and reached an altitude of 187 km (116 miles) and traveled in space just 16 minutes before spraying in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike the Soviet launch, shepard had control over the vessel during the Freedom 7 flight.

The whole flight was played on TV and Watched by millions. After he was successfully recovered, Shepard was welcomed as a national hero, the president was awarded and treated a show in Washington, New York and Los Angeles.

Although Shepard is widely considered the first astronaut, several other people were called "astronauts" at the time due to an extremely high altitude flight. One of them was Wiley Post, who was the first man to fly solo worldwide, and is sometimes considered the first American astronaut due to his record flight of 50,000 feet (15,240 m) at altitude and his work under pressure.