The Russian Embassy in South Africa ridiculed the publication of the NASA Johnson space center about the first manned flight into space, which, according to the US space agency, was carried out by an American.
The post said that 63 years ago, Alan Shepard made history by making "the first manned space flight in history" as a pilot of the Freedom 7 spacecraft as part of the Mercury-Redstone-3 mission.
At the same time, no other details of the "first mission" are indicated. The NASA Center is also silent about the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's flight into outer space three weeks before the Shepard mission.
"The first man in space [American astronaut Alan Shepard] colorized. 12 April 1961," reads the response publication of the Russian embassy, to which a photo of Yuri Gagarin is attached.
Later, the publication of the NASA's Johnson space center, to which the Russian embassy responded, was deleted.
During his 15-minute flight, Shepard manually controlled the ship (deflected the nose of the capsule in different directions, rotated the ship along the axis). Gagarin's flight was automatic, since there was no need to switch to manual control - everything worked properly.