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

WASHINGTON -- 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.

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. Journalists
interested in covering the event should contact Andrea Farmer at
321-449-4318 or Jillian McRae at 321-449-4273. Media need to arrive
at least 30 minutes before the start of the ceremony.

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.

To cover the event, news media representatives need to be at the Air
Force Badging Office (Gate 1) at 6:30 a.m. for transportation to
Complex 5/6. Mission badges for the STS-134 shuttle mission will be
honored for this event. Reporters who do not have one must contact
Christopher Calkins at 321-494-7732 or Auburn Davis at 321-494-6489
to arrange for media credentials.

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

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