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The sign accompanying the spacecraft mockup. It reads

Project Mercury: Sending Man Into Space

Mission MR-3, 5 May 1961

MR-3 was NASA's mission designation for the first American space flight involving human beings. A Mercury-Redstone rocket launched the first piloted Mercury spacecraft, Freedom 7, to an altitude of 116.5 nautical miles and a range of 302 miles on 5 May 1961. During this 14.8 minute flight, astronaut Alan Shepard reached a speed of 5,180 miles per hour and experienced a maximum of six times normal gravity during ascent, about five minutes of weightlessness, and slightly less than twelve times normal gravity during re-entry. Both Shepard and the Freedom 7 capsule were recovered in excellent condition, and Shepard was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal by President John F. Kennedy during a White House ceremony on 8 May 1961.