5. December 2023 5. December 2023 Vienna 12/05/2023 Entire blog as a free PDF eBook. When the Russians successfully sent the first manned rocket into space on April 12, 1961, there was panic in the USA. That’s why they decided to send their own astronauts into space. Less than a month later, on May 5, 1961, it was announced to the world that American cosmonauts Alan B. Shepard and Virgil Grissom reached an altitude of 190 after a flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of the Mercury 3 mission km, landed about 486 km from launch near the Bahamas Islands in the Atlantic. Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket with astronaut Alan B. Shepard aboard Freedom 7, launched May 5, 1961 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Official version. This would be the beginning of the American triumph in the conquest of space. Washington Post investigative journalist Mark Phillips describes his investigation in the form of a novel in Joachim Volker’s book. The book, published in German, is entitled: The Apollo Lie – …