 The American astronaut shown in the opening credits is  Alan Shepard (qv), the first American astronaut in space, and  later commander of Apollo 14. There is also archive footage of:  Charles A. Lindbergh (qv) next to his plane Spirit of St. Louis,  Robert H. Goddard (qv) the father of modern rocketry writing his  theories on a blackboard, Chuck Yeager (qv) and the Bell X