Fifty years after a Redstone rocket carried the first American astronaut, Alan Shephard, into space, NASA is getting out of the business of sending astronauts on missions using its own spacecraft.

当红石火箭将首位美国宇航员艾伦·谢泼德送上太空50年后，美国航天局正在结束使用自己的航天器搭载宇航员升空的使命。

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Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper became an expert on the Redstone Rocket that would launch Mercury astronauts on short training flights.

VOA: special.2009.06.10

There were some concerns about the safety of the huge Redstone rocket that was to carry the spacecraft.

VOA: special.2011.05.15