Defiance 7

Defiance 7 was the space capsule in which Captain Carl Bell of the United States Space Administration (USSA) made his historic flight, becoming the first human in space, on May 5, 1961. This claim was disputed by both the Soviet Union and China. Captain Bell's flight lasted twelve minutes and seven seconds, and made a full revolution around the Earth. Bell died when the capsule crashed on its return to Earth.

This is the Fallout universe's version of the suborbital flight of Alan Shepard, first American in space, on the same date. (Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, on April 12.) His Mercury space capsule was named Freedom 7. (The number 7 is a reference to the number of astronauts chosen for Project Mercury.)

Plausibility
Note that it is not possible to complete an orbit of the Earth in a "coasting" spacecraft in less than 89 minutes. Most likely this is a minor writing error; otherwise, an implausibly complex explanation would be required. It should also be noted that the 1950s-esque SCIENCE! of the Fallout universe differs from the actual physics of our universe, so this is another explanation. It is also entirely plausible that the US government lied about this "accomplishment", and the error was in fact a subtle hint towards this fact.