50th Anniversary of the First Manned Space Flight Launched by the U.S.

It was 50 years ago that Alan Shepard made history with his short, but significant blast off into space. It was pivotal for the U.S., but compared to today it was not much of a flight clocking in at only 15 minutes.  Never the less, it was very important for the United States. It gave us the opportunity to test the maneuverability of the spacecraft with the pilot in control. Seven months later John Glenn spent considerably more time in space with 5 hours doing 3 orbits of the Earth. And spend National Astronomy Day on May 7th at the Franklin Institute. For more visit www.FI.edu. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20110502_new.mp3]