92-Foot-Tall Mercury Redstone Rocket Replica
Concord, New Hampshire
Alan Shepard, a New Hampshire native, became the first American to fly into outer space on May 5, 1961. Nearly fifty years later, in 2009, the state erected a life-size perfect replica of the Redstone rocket that launched Shepard skyward. Explanatory signs around the rocket reveal that the Redstone was in fact just a nuclear ballistic missile, barely six feet wide, with a space capsule stuck on top. Shepard was a brave man, and a little nuts.
The rocket stands in front of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, an upscale planetarium. There's a little bronze bust of Shepard on the admission desk, but that's the extent of his personal glorification -- which is as he would have wanted it (Shepard was an intensely private man). And the rocket really was the star of those early Mercury flights.
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is co-named for Christa McAuliffe, New Hampshire's other famous astronaut. Unfortunately, her spacecraft didn't perform as well as Alan's.