MOSCOW, May 6. The Russian Embassy in South Africa ridiculed the Johnson Space Center's publication about the first manned flight into space, which, according to NASA, was carried out by American Alan Shepard.
NASA yesterday published a post saying that 63 years ago, Alan Shepard made history by being the pilot of the Freedom 7 spacecraft as part of the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission, making “the first-ever manned flight into space.” However, no other details of the “first mission” are indicated. NASA is also silent about Yuri Gagarin's flight into outer space three weeks before Shepard's mission. 
“Photo of the first man in space [American astronaut Alan Shepard] in color. April 12, 1961,” says the response publication of the Russian embassy, to which is attached a photograph of Yuri Gagarin. 
Shepard manually controlled the ship during his 15-minute flight (deflected the nose of the capsule in different directions, rotated the ship along its axis).
Gagarin’s flight was automatic, since there was no need to switch to manual control — everything worked properly. However, such a possibility was assumed during the Soviet mission on April 12. The NASA center itself does not describe any details in the publication.