Alan Shepard 1923 – 1998

Biography

Alan Shepard was an American astronaut and the first American in space. Born in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1923, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and served as a naval aviator and test pilot. Selected as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, he made his historic suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961, reaching an altitude of 116 miles. Grounded for years by an inner-ear disorder, he underwent surgery and returned to flight as commander of Apollo 14 in 1971, landing in the Fra Mauro highlands of the Moon, where he famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface. He later became a businessman and died in California in 1998. He later served as chief of the astronaut office and was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, remembered as a pioneer of American spaceflight.