Portal:Spaceflight/Selected biography/May 2008

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Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (18 November 1923 – 21 July 1998) (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.) was the second person and the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon. He was also one of many famous descendants of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Born in Derry, New Hampshire, Shepard graduated from Pinkerton Academy in 1941 and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1944.

Shepard began his US Navy career after graduation from Annapolis, on the destroyer USS Cogswell, deployed in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. He subsequently entered flight training and received his wings in 1947.

In 1959, Shepard was one of 110 military test pilots invited by the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration to volunteer for the first manned space flight program. Following a gruelling series of tests, Shepard became one of the original group of seven Mercury astronauts.

On 5 May 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space.

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, America's third successful lunar landing mission. While on the Moon, Shepard played golf with a Wilson six-iron head attached to a lunar sample scoop handle. He retired from both the US Navy and NASA on 1 August 1974. Shepard died of leukemia near his home in Pebble Beach, California on 21 July 1998. (more...)