Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the first American to travel into space, and in 1971, he walked on the Moon. Shepard was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969, and from June 1971 until his retirement from the United States Navy and NASA on August 1, 1974. He is buried in Derry, New Hampshire.
About Alan Shepard in brief
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the first American to travel into space, and in 1971, he walked on the Moon. Shepard was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969, and from June 1971 until his retirement from the United States Navy and NASA on August 1, 1974. He was promoted to rear admiral on August 25, 1971, the first astronaut to reach that rank. Shepard’s father, Alan B. Shepard Sr., worked in the Derry National Bank, owned by Shepard’s grandfather. His father served in France with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and World War II. His mother, Pauline Renza Shepard, was a devout Christian Scientists, like her father. She died of lung cancer at the age of 83. He is buried in Derry, New Hampshire, where he was born and raised by his father and his wife, Louise Brewer, whose parents were pensioners on the du Pont estate on the Pont du Pont. He had a younger sister, Polly, who was known as Polly. He graduated from Pinkerton Academy in 1940, and from the Naval Academy at Annapolis with the Class of 1941. He served in the U.S. National Guard between the wars, and was recalled to active duty during WWII, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also served as a test pilot in 1946, and became a naval pilot in 1950.
He became the second person, and first American, to manually control the orientation of his craft, Mercury-Redstone 3, in May 1961. His craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. In the final stages of Project Mercury, Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10, which was planned as a three-day mission. He named Mercury Spacecraft 15B Freedom 7 II in honor of his first spacecraft, but the mission was canceled. In 1963, he was grounded in 1963 due to Ménière’s disease, an inner-ear ailment that caused episodes of extreme dizziness and nausea. In 1969, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the Apollo Lunar Module Antares. At age 47, he become the fifth, the oldest, and the earliest-born person to walk on the moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. He hit two golf balls on the lunar surface. He won several races, including a regatta held by the Annapolis Yacht Club, including the USSFreedom, a schooner he owned, and owned up to 90-foot schooners. He met Louise Brewer in 1942, when he went to Principia College to be with his sister who was unable to go home owing to wartime travel restrictions. She was a keen and competitive sailor, winning several races,. He also participated in swimming, and participated in the eight-year Christmas break with the eight year old girl.
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