Between Alan Shepperd and john glen what are the accomplishment in space exploration?

Question

who went space first.what is the difference between orbiting earth and going to space.

Answer 1

Alan Shepard was the first American in space, and Gus Grissom was the second. They did not orbit Earth, though. They simply flew high enough to go into space (outside the atmosphere... roughly 100 miles). Alan Shepard went on to walk on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. He's also the only human ever to hit a golf ball on the moon.

John Glenn was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit. John Glenn was also the only astronaut to fly into space in Project Mercury (America's first series of launching humans into space) and the space shuttle. When he flew on the shuttle, he was 77 years old, making him the oldest person to travel into space. The 35 year gap in between his Project Mercury flight and his shuttle flight is the longest span between two consecutive flights by the same astronaut.

"Going into space" just means leaving the atmosphere. You can go straight up and go into space.

If you shot straight up into space, but then also shot yourself sideways at a high enough velocity (speed), instead of falling straight back down, you'd be falling a little sideways. Because you're going sideways so fast as you fall, you keep missing Earth, and you are in orbit.

Theoretically, you don't need to be in space to orbit Earth- you could be within the atmosphere and do it, but your velocity would be so high that you'd burn up from the heat generated as you passed through the air.