Alan Shepard

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.) was the first U.S. astronaut in space, though his first flight was only sub-orbital.

Astronaut career

Shepard was one of the Mercury astronauts named by NASA in April 1959 to Project Mercury, and he holds the distinction of being the first American to journey into space, as well as the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon. On May 5, 1961, in the Freedom 7 spacecraft, he was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight—a flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles and to a landing point 302 statute miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. He was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10 Freedom 7-II, three day extended duration mission in October 1963. The MA-10 mission was cancelled on June 13, 1963.

Related Topics:
Mercury astronauts - NASA - 1959 - Project Mercury - May 5 - 1961 - Freedom 7 - Redstone rocket - Suborbital flight - Atlantic Missile Range - Mercury-Atlas 10

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:Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up.

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::—Alan Shepard, shortly before launch on Mercury 3/Freedom 7

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After the Mercury-Atlas 10 mission was cancelled in June 1963, Shepard was designated as the command pilot of the first manned Gemini mission. Thomas Stafford was picked as his co-pilot. But in early 1964, Shepard was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, a condition in which fluid pressure builds up in the inner ear. This syndrome causes the semicircular canals and motion detectors to become extremely sensitive, resulting in disorientation, dizziness, and nausea. This condition caused him to be removed from flight status for most of the 1960's (Virgil Grissom and John Young were assigned to Gemini 3 instead).

Related Topics:
Thomas Stafford - Meniere's disease - Virgil Grissom - John Young - Gemini 3

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Also in 1963, he was designated Chief of the Astronaut Office with responsibility for monitoring the coordination, scheduling, and control of all activities involving NASA astronauts. This included monitoring the development and implementation of effective training programs to assure the flight readiness of available pilot/non-pilot personnel for assignment to crew positions on manned space flights; furnishing pilot evaluations applicable to the design, construction, and operations of spacecraft systems and related equipment; and providing qualitative scientific and engineering observations to facilitate overall mission planning, formulation of feasible operational procedures, and selection and conduct of specific experiments for each flight.

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He was restored to full flight status in May 1969, following corrective surgery (using a newly developed method) for Meniere's disease. He was originally assigned to command Apollo 13, but as it was felt he needed more time to train, he and his crewmates (lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell and command module pilot Stuart Roosa) swapped missions with the then crew of Apollo 14 (James Lovell, Ken Mattingly (who was himself replaced by Jack Swigert shortly before the mission), and Fred Haise).

Related Topics:
Apollo 13 - Edgar Mitchell - Stuart Roosa - James Lovell - Ken Mattingly - Jack Swigert - Fred Haise

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At age 47, and the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard made his second space flight as commander of Apollo 14, January 31–February 9, 1971, man's third successful lunar landing mission.

Related Topics:
Apollo 14 - January 31 - February 9 - 1971 - Lunar landing mission

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Shepard was a Rear Admiral when he retired from the Navy and the Astronaut Corps in 1974.

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