Mercury Astronauts and a Redstone . ... Credit Copyright: NASA Explanation: Space suited project Mercury astronauts John H. Glenn , Virgil I. Grissom , and Alan B. Shepard Jr. (left to right) are posing in front of a Redstone rocket in this vintage 1961 NASA publicity photo. Project Mercury was the first U.S. program designed to put humans in space. ... This goal was achieved by NASA's Apollo program and Shepard himself walked on the moon as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. ...