Two Events Commemorate 50th Anniversary of U.S. Human Spaceflight

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. manned spaceflight during two events this week around the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Television will carry both events live.

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On Wednesday, May 4, at 2 p.m. EDT, the U.S. Postal Service will unveil two new stamps at the Rocket Garden of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, located on State Road 405.

One stamp commemorates NASA's Project Mercury and Alan Shepard's historic launch on May 5, 1961 aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7. The second stamp honors NASA's MESSENGER, which reached Mercury in March to become the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. The two missions frame a remarkable 50-year period in which America advanced space exploration through more than 1,500 manned and unmanned flights.

Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter and members of the Shepard family will join Bolden at the stamps' unveiling and at a 50th anniversary ceremony on Thursday, May 5, at 9 a.m., at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Thursday event includes a re-creation of Shepard's flight and recovery, as well as a tribute to his contributions as a moonwalker on the Apollo 14 lunar mission. KSC Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana and more than 200 workers from the original Mercury program, also will be in attendance.

For more information about Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, visit:

http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For a photo gallery of Shepard's flight and an interactive timeline of key NASA milestones, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/50th

For more information about the MESSENGER mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

SOURCE NASA