In 1961 Alan Shepherd became the first American in space. He made the first flight as part of Project Mercury in a spacecraft called Freedom 7.
Since that time many American astronauts have gone into space from US soil. The last was the space shuttle Atlantis sent to the International Space Station in July 2011 when the space Shuttle program was cancelled.
Since that time American astronauts have had to hitch a ride to the International Space Station on board a Russian Soyuz capsule launched from a Russian site.
This will change Wednesday, May 27th, when a crew of two astronauts will take flight on Space X’s Crew Dragon in a test mission to the International Space Station.
If all goes according to plan the Dragon will be the first commercially built spacecraft to carry Americans to the Space Station.
Lift off will be from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida Wednesday at 2:33 pm MT weather permitting.
They are scheduled to arrive at the Space Station May 28th. The Space station can be seen over Utah that evening at 10:53 pm.
