WARREN, NH – A real Redstone Rocket and NASA astronaut and moon walker Alan Shepard autographed photo are on display in a very modest but enchanting exhibit in a most out of the tiny town – namely in Warren, New Hampshire.

We came upon the authentic rocket exhibit hosted by the Warren Historical Society during our recent vacation to New England.

Alan Shepard launched as the first American to reach space during a suborbital mission on May 5, 1961 from Launch Complex 5 on Cape Canaveral, FL – ushering in Americas manned space program as the very first of NASA’s Mercury astronauts to blast off on a Mercury Redstone rocket.

Shepard launched on a Mercury Redstone rocket on the Freedom 7 mission – where the one-man Mercury astronaut capsule was bolted on top of a U.S. Army Redstone rocket.

Shepard later launched to the Moon atop a mighty Saturn V rocket on NASA’s Apollo 14 lunar landing mission in 1971 and became the 5^th American to set foot on the lunar surface on the 3^rd human Moon landing mission.

Why Shepard? Because he is a native New Hampshirite.  He helped the exhibit with the autographed phot of him and his Freedom 7 launch.

The eight ton Redstone rocket was donated by the Army and arrived in Warren, NH in April 21, 1971.

The exhibit was dedicated on ‘Old Home Day’ on July 21, 1971 by then New Hampshire  Governor Walter Peterson before a crowd, accord to an info plaque at the exhibit from the Warren Historical Society

x