US Stamp Released to Honor Alan Shepard

Two new stamps honoring NASA achievements were unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service at the Rocket Garden of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. 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.