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Description
January 21, 1960. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human in space and in orbit aboard Pathfinder-1, or "Trailblazer" as he named it.
The Man in Space Soonest program, re-named to the Pathfinder Project, sent the first person to space 64 years ago. After nearly 2 years of test flights under "Discoverer", Trailblazer would beat Vostok by over a year and Neil would return home a national hero.
Back in 1958, a contest over the design for the Man in Space Soonest craft was held, and strangely enough, Goodyear Aerospace's proposal was accepted, despite others being possibly more viable. (In real life Avco's design was accepted) Goodyear's craft was primarily a sphere, with a small conical structure on the top to hold attitude control and parachutes, and a service module at the back with fuel for its engines and communications. Pathfinder would would see upgrades not long after Trailblazer, and would become the Air Force's own spacecraft for military operations. Unfortunately, with Pathfinder's success and the early failures of NASA's Project Mercury, NASA would eventually stop flying crewed missions.

I'm thinking of making this a whole timeline. If anyone wants to see more of this (Military lunar missions?), tell me!
From the same timeline as Lighting on the Pad .

Description
January 21, 1960. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human in space and in orbit aboard Pathfinder-1, or "Trailblazer" as he named it.
The Man in Space Soonest program, re-named to the Pathfinder Project, sent the first person to space 64 years ago. After nearly 2 years of test flights under "Discoverer", Trailblazer would beat Vostok by over a year and Neil would return home a national hero.
Back in 1958, a contest over the design for the Man in Space Soonest craft was held, and strangely enough, Goodyear Aerospace's proposal was accepted, despite others being possibly more viable. (In real life Avco's design was accepted) Goodyear's craft was primarily a sphere, with a small conical structure on the top to hold attitude control and parachutes, and a service module at the back with fuel for its engines and communications. Pathfinder would would see upgrades not long after Trailblazer, and would become the Air Force's own spacecraft for military operations. Unfortunately, with Pathfinder's success and the early failures of NASA's Project Mercury, NASA would eventually stop flying crewed missions.

I'm thinking of making this a whole timeline. If anyone wants to see more of this (Military lunar missions?), tell me!
From the same timeline as Lighting on the Pad .