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

He attended the East Derry primary and secondary
schools in his birthplace of Derry, New Hampshire;
received a Bachelor of Science degree from the
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis,
Maryland|Annapolis in 1944, an Honorary Master of
Arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1962, and
Honorary Doctorate of Science from Miami
University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1971, and an Honorary
Doctorate of Humanities from Franklin Pierce
College in 1972. Graduated United States Naval
Test Pilot School in 1951; Naval War College,
Newport, Rhode Island in 1957.

His religious background was in Christian Science.

==Naval career==
Shepard began his United States Navy|naval career
after graduation from Annapolis on the destroyer
USS Cogswell (DD-651)|Cogswell, deployed in the
Pacific Ocean during World War II. He subsequently
entered flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas
and Pensacola, Florida, and received his wings in
1947. His next assignment was with Fighter
Squadron 42 at Norfolk, Virginia and Jacksonville,
Florida. He served several tours aboard aircraft
carriers in the Mediterranean while with this
squadron.

In 1950, he attended the United States Navy Test
Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. After
graduation, he participated in flight test work
which included high-altitude tests to obtain data
on light at different altitudes and on a variety
of air masses over the American continent; and
test and development experiments of the Navy's
in-flight refueling system, carrier suitability
trails of the F2H-3 Banshee, and Navy trials of
the first angled carrier deck. He was subsequently
assigned to Fighter Squadron 193 at Moffett Field,
California, a night fighter unit flying Banshee
jets. As operations officer of this squadron, he
made two tours to the Western pacific on board the
carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34)|USS Oriskany.

He returned to Patuxent for a second tour of duty
and engaged in flight testing the F3H Demon, F8U
Crusader, F4D Skyray, and F11F Tigercat. He was
also project test pilot on the F5D Skylancer, and
his last five months at Patuxent were spent as an
instructor in the Test Pilot School. He later
attended the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode
Island, and upon graduating in 1957 was
subsequently assigned to the staff of the
Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, as aircraft
readiness officer.

He logged more than 8,000 hours flying
time—3,700 hours in jet aircraft.



==Astronaut career==
Shepard was one of the The_Mercury_Seven|Mercury
astronauts named by NASA in April 1959 to
Mercury_program | 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)|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_10 | Mercury-Atlas 10 Freedom 7-II,
three day extended duration mission in October
1963. The Mercury_10 | MA-10 mission was cancelled
on June 13, 1963.

:Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up.
::—Alan Shepard, shortly before launch on
Mercury 3|Mercury 3/Freedom 7

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).

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. 

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).

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 List of lunar
astronauts|lunar landing mission.

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

==Awards and honors==
During his life he was awarded the Congressional
Space Medal of Honor; two NASA Distinguished
Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Achievement
Medal, Astronaut Badge|Naval Astronaut Wings, the
Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the
Distinguished Flying Cross (USA)|Distinguished
Flying Cross; recipient of the Langley Award
(highest award of the Smithsonian Institution) on
May 5, 1964, the Lambert Trophy, the Iven C.
Kincheloe Award, the Cabot Award, the Collier
Trophy, the City of New York Gold Medal (1971),
Achievement Award for 1971.

Shepard was appointed by the Richard
Nixon|President in July 1971 as a delegate to the
26th United Nations General Assembly and served
through the entire assembly which lasted from
September to December 1971.

Shepard is also remembered for being the only
person to play golf on the Moon (using a converted
soil sampler as his club).

==Later years==

Alan Shepard was always a shrewd businessman, and
was the only astronaut to become a millionaire
while still in the program. After he left the
program, he was on the boards of many corporations
under the auspices of his Seven-Fourteen
Enterprises (named for his two flights, Freedom 7
and Apollo 14).

In 1988, he teamed up with fellow Mercury Seven
astronaut Deke Slayton to write Moon Shot|Moon
Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the
Moon.  It was turned into a television|TV
miniseries in 1994.

Shepard died of leukemia near his home in Pebble
Beach, California on July 21, 1998, at age 74, two
years after being diagnosed with that disease. His
wife of 53 years, the former Louise Brewer, died
five weeks afterward. They had two daughters,
Laura (born in 1947) and Juliana (born in 1951),
and had also raised a niece, Alice.

==External link==
*http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepard-ala
n.html NASA-Biography