How long did Alan Shepard orbit Earth?

Answer 1

His famous first flight, on May 5 of 1961, when he became the first American in space and the crowds

went wild, was a sub-orbital flight. He went up and he came down, there was no orbit, and the whole

thing was over in less than 20 minutes.

Later, in 1974, aboard Apollo 14 on the way to the moon, the Saturn third stage with the Apollo

command module and LEM stayed in earth orbit for a while before they got the 'go for TLI'; that

wasn't more than a few hours, before they re-lit the candle, broke out of earth orbit, and headed

for the moon.

Answer 2

Alan Shepard's spaceflight on May 5, 1961, aboard the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 lasted approximately 15 minutes and 22 seconds. He completed a suborbital flight rather than orbiting the Earth.