Second US human space flight, 1961. Spectators watch as a Redstone rocket launches the Liberty Bell 7 capsule into space on 21st July 1961. This mission (Mercury-Redstone 4) launched Virgil Ivan (Gus) Grissom into space as part of the Mercury programme, making him the second US astronaut to travel into space, and the third person worldwide after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and US astronaut Alan Shepard. Grissom's flight lasted less than 16 minutes, reaching a height of 190 kilometres. Photographed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.