Background

Alan Shepard was born on November 18, 1923, to the family of Alan B. Shepard Sr., an army colonel, and Pauline Renza Shepard (née Emerson). He has a younger sister, Pauline. Alan Shepard grew up on a farm.

Alan Shepard was one of many famous descendants of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Education

As a small child, Shepard attended a school in a one-room schoolhouse, where he was a good student, particularly in mathematics. He graduated from the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1941. Owing to the war, the usual four-year course at Annapolis was cut short by a year, and he graduated and was commissioned as an ensign on June 6, 1944.

In 1950, Shepard entered the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent, Maryland. After qualifying as a test pilot, he tested high-altitude aircraft and in-flight fueling systems and made some of the first landings on angled carrier decks.

After World War II, Alan studied at a civilian flying school in his spare time while attending naval flight training at Corpus Christi.

In 1957 he graduated from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

Besides, he was awarded Honorary degrees of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1962, Doctor of Science from Miami University in 1971, and Doctorate of Humanities from Franklin Pierce College in 1972.

Career

During World War II, Shepard served as an ensign aboard the destroyer Cogswell in the Pacific. Following the war, he began flight training and qualified as a pilot in 1947. As a Naval pilot, Shepard served in Norfolk, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and aboard several aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. In 1950, he became a test pilot, and over the next eight years, he tested a variety of aircraft and worked as a flight instructor. He was also assigned to duty aboard a carrier in the Pacific and eventually earned an appointment to the staff of the Atlantic fleet's commander in chief.

In 1958, Shepard was one of 110 test pilots chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as prospective astronauts. NASA planned to judge the applicants based on physical and mental criteria, looking, as NASA administrator T. Keith Glennan stated, for "men of vision … with a practical, hardheaded approach to the difficult job ahead." After a battery of physical and psychological tests, seven men were selected as the nation's first astronauts: John Glenn, M. Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Donald Slayton, Leroy Cooper, Walter Schirra, and Alan Shepard. Following the announcement Shepard said, "My feelings about being in this program are really quite simple….I'm here because it's a chance to serve the country. I'm here, too, because it's a great personal challenge: I know [space travel] can be done, that it's important for it to be done, and I want to do it."

Shepard began intensive training for space flight. Courses in biology, geography, astrophysics, astronomy, and meteorology supplemented his physical training, which included exposure to conditions much more severe than were anticipated during space travel. Shepard also spent long hours performing weightlessness tests, preparing for the weaker gravitational pull outside the earth's atmosphere.

Early in 1961, NASA chose Shepard over Glenn and Grissom, the two other finalists, to be the first American in space. The astronauts themselves had attempted to downplay the importance of the selection of the first astronaut. John Glenn said, "We have tried to do away with a lot of this talk about who is going to be first on this, because we feel very strongly that this is so much bigger than whose name happens to be on the first ticket." Preparations for America's first manned space flight therefore commenced in a spirit of cooperation. Glenn acted as Shepard's backup, ready if Shepard became unable to fly, and Slayton served as Shepard's radio contact at the Mercury Control Center. The other astronauts also had responsibilities during Shepard's flight.

On May 5, 1961, Freedom 7 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shepard piloted the Mercury capsule 115 miles above the earth's surface and 302 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. After landing safely in the Atlantic, Shepard was picked up from the water by helicopter pilot; his first words were, "Man, what a ride!" Although the trip lasted for only about fifteen minutes, Shepard's journey was almost technically perfect, and it paved the way for many more flights by American astronauts. Shepard returned to ticker-tape parades, and he received a medal from President John F. Kennedy.

After his historic flight, Shepard looked forward to future missions. In 1963, however, he was diagnosed as having Meniere's syndrome, a disease of the inner ear that produces nausea, vertigo, and hearing impairment. NASA removed Shepard from active flight duty and reassigned him to NASA's Houston, Texas, facility, where he became chief of the Astronaut Office. Although he became quite wealthy as a result of real estate and banking investments during the next few years, he yearned for space flight. In 1968, he underwent a successful operation in which a small drain tube was implanted in his inner ear. Shepard applied for readmission to active duty, and in 1969 his patience and determination were rewarded when NASA chose him to command the Apollo 14 flight to the moon. "I think if a person wants something badly enough," Shepard once said, "he's just got to hang in there and keep at it."

Apollo 14 became an important mission for American space program. Apollo 13 had been a disappointment; technical difficulties had prevented it from landing on the moon as planned and placed the astronauts in danger, and the space program was losing public support. The Apollo 14 astronauts were scheduled to test new equipment on the moon's surface and to spend longer periods outside the space capsule. Shepard and Edwin Mitchell were assigned to land on the moon while Stuart Roosa orbited the moon in the command module, the Kitty Hawk.

On January 31, 1971, Apollo 14 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, nearly ten years after Shepard's first space flight. Five days later Shepard and Mitchell landed on the moon's surface, the third group of astronauts to do so. From their lunar module, the two astronauts stepped out into the Fra Mauro Highlands, as the world watched on television. Shepard said, "Wow, it's really wild up here…. It certainly is a stark place." The astronauts had brought a lunar cart with them, and during two trips outside the lunar module, each lasting more than four and a half hours, they conducted experiments and gathered rock specimens. On one excursion Shepard hit a golf ball across the moon's surface. In addition, the astronauts left behind a multi-million dollar mini-scientific station that would continue to send messages to scientists on earth. Thirty-three and a half hours after they landed, the two astronauts completed a successful docking with Kitty Hawk. The 240,000-mile journey back to earth ended with a splash-down near Samoa in the South Pacific on February 9. By all accounts, the voyage was a big success.

Shepard and Deke Slayton, another former astronaut, sought to set the story straight when they contracted to write their own account of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, tentatively titled Giant Steps: The Inside Story of the American Space Program.

Shepard retired from NASA in 1974. Always a successful entrepreneur, he developed a wholesale beer distributorship and a real estate firm in the Houston area. Shrewd investments in horses, banks, oil, and real estate have made him a multimillionaire. He became a chairman in Marathon Construction Company, and later president of a Coors beer distribution company in Houston.

Achievements

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  Alan Shepard went down in history as the first American in space and as one of a handful of men to walk on the moon. In May 1961, 23 days after Yury A. Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, Shepard made a 15-minute suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 115 miles. He also commanded the Apollo 14 flight, which involved the first landing in the lunar Fra Mauro highlands.
  
  Alan was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1977, the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 11, 1990. He was the first astronaut to be promoted to rear admiral.
  
  The Navy named a supply ship, USNS Alan Shepard (T-AKE-3), for him in 2006. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, New Hampshire, is named after Shepard and Christa McAuliffe.
  
  Each year, the Space Foundation, in partnership with the Astronauts Memorial Foundation and NASA, present the Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award for outstanding contributions by K–12 educators or district-level administrators to educational technology. The award recognizes excellence in the development and application of technology in the classroom or to the professional development of teachers. The recipient demonstrates exemplary use of technology either to foster lifelong learners or to make the learning process easier.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings

    (On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, ...)

    1994

Religion

Though his mother and his wife were very religious (both Christian Scientists), and his dad played organ at the church in Shepard's hometown, and though Shepard did attend church, he never spoke about his faith.

At the famous introduction of the Merc 7 in 1959, when asked about his "sustaining faith," Shepard said, "I am not a member of any church." When he stood on the moon, he was moved by how tiny and fragile the Earth seemed, but still, he never openly discussed whether his experiences in space ever gave him a sense of a world or life beyond the one we know on Earth. His partner on Apollo 14 discussed at length his sense that the cosmos was wrapped inside a "divine presence," but Shepard made no such comments.

Views

Alan Shepard stayed with NASA for 15 years which is longer than any of the other Mercury 7 astronauts, and longer than many astronauts today stay. "I think he really believed in the mission and believed in what he and what NASA was doing," said biographer Neal Thompson.

Quotations: "You know, being a test pilot isn't always the healthiest business in the world."

"I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books."

"There's no question that all the generations got excited about the first flights, with Kennedy's inspiration to go to the moon, leaving the planet for the first time, and fortunately coming back."

"I realized up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to get together and live on this planet. We look pretty vulnerable in the darkness of space."

"No way that any astronaut worth his salt volunteered for the space program to become a hero. You don't select astronauts who want fame and fortune. You select them because they're the best test pilots in the world, they know it, and it's a personal challenge for them. And the astronauts of today are exactly the same."

Membership

Alan Shepard was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a member of Rotary, Kiwanis, the Mayflower Society, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the American Fighter Aces.

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  American Astronautical Society , United States

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  Society of Experimental Test Pilots

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  Society of the Cincinnati , United States

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  American Fighter Aces Association , United States

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  Rotary International

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  Kiwanis International

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  Mayflower Society

Personality

Even though Shepard was in constant limelight along with all of the early NASA astronauts, his life was somewhat of an enigma, as he closely guarded his privacy and held most people – including his friends – at arm’s length.

"He wasn’t the most outgoing guy with the press and I felt like there had to be more to his story than what I had read," said Neal Thompson, author of the only Shepard biography. "There were a lot of aspects to his personality that were complicated and compelling and contradictory. He was highly competitive, but he was also a softy underneath at times. He was accused over the years of being a bit of a womanizer, and yet he was married to the same woman for 40-plus years and I think they were very devoted to each other. So there were a lot of complex aspects to his personality that were fun to explore."

Quotes from others about the person

• "With the passing of Alan Shepard, our nation has lost an outstanding patriot, one of its finest pilots -and I have lost a very close friend." - John Glenn
  
  "His service will always loom large in America's history. He is one of the great heroes of modern America." - Bill Clinton
  
  "His flight was a tremendous statement about tenacity, courage and brilliance. He crawled on top of that rocket that had never before flown into space with a person aboard, and he did it. That was an unbelievable act of courage." - Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
  
  "Alan Shepard was a great man, a great leader. We were pioneers. If you are an explorer, what more can you ask than to travel into space." - Edgar Mitchell

Interests

• business, traveling

• Sport & Clubs

  yachting, golf

Connections

On March 3, 1945, Alan was married to Louise Brewer of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, whom he had met while at the Naval Academy; they had two daughters: Laura and Juliana. In addition, he raised a niece, Alice.

Father:

Alan B. Shepard Sr.

Mother:

Pauline Renza Shepard (née Emerson)

Wife:

Louise Brewer

Daughter:

Laura Shepard-Churchley

Daughter:

Juliana Shepard Jenkin

She was personally recognized by Continental’s chairman and CEO Robert F. Six for her courage, dedication, and devoted conduct in the Flight 426 crash on August 7, 1975, at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The leadership and effective response of the entire crew ensured the safe evacuation of all passengers.

niece:

Alice Williams

Sister:

Pauline Shepard

ancestor:

Richard Warren

Richard Warren was one of the passengers on the Pilgrim ship Mayflower, that brought the first English Puritans to the New World in 1620.

colleague:

Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter was an American astronaut, pilot, and aquanaut. He was chosen for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. On leave of absence from NASA, Carpenter participated in the Navy's Man-in the-Sea Project as an aquanaut in the SEALAB II program off the coast of La Jolla, California.

colleague:

Gordon Cooper

Gordon Cooper was an American astronaut, the youngest of the seven original astronauts in NASA's Project Mercury.

colleague:

Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was an American pilot and astronaut. He participated in NASA's Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and Apollo program.

colleague:

Wally Schirra

Wally Schirra was an American astronaut, aviator and test pilot. He was the first person to go into space three times.

colleague:

Deke Slayton

Deke Slayton was an American aeronautical engineer and astronaut, a member of NASA's Project Mercury. He was appointed NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office and Director of Flight Crew Operations.

Acquaintance:

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Alan Shepard.

Acquaintance:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John F. Kennedy awards astronaut Alan Shepard, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his first American manned space flight on the Mercury Freedom 7 mission.

Acquaintance:

Jay Barbree

Jay Barbree is a retired American journalist, specializing in space travel. He co-authored a 1994 book Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon.

colleague:

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. was an American astronaut, aviator, engineer, entrepreneur, and politician. He was a part of the Mercury Seven team and the Space Shuttle program.

References

• Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard
  2004
• Apollo Confidential: Memories of Men On the Moon
  2019