Alan B. Shepard Jr.

Born: Nov. 18, 1923, East Derry, New Hampshire Died: July 21, 1998, Pebble Beach, California

NASA experience: Shepard was one of the Mercury astronauts named by NASA in April 1959, and he holds the distinction of being the first American to journey into space. On May 5, 1961, in the Freedom 7 spacecraft, he was launched by a Redstone vehicle on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight, which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles. 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. He was restored to full flight status in May 1969, after corrective surgery for an inner ear disorder. Shepard made his second space flight as spacecraft commander on Apollo 14, Jan. 31-Feb. 9, 1971. He was accompanied on man’s third lunar landing mission by Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot. Shepard logged a total of 216 hours and 57 minutes in space, of which 9 hours and 17 minutes were spent in lunar surface EVA.

Military experience: Shepard began his naval career, after graduation from Annapolis, on the destroyer Cogswell, deployed in the pacific 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 that included high-altitude tests; and test and development experiments of the Navy’s in-flight refueling system, carrier suitability trails of the F2H3 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 onboard the carrier 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 assigned to the staff of the Commanderin-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, as aircraft readiness officer. He logged more than 8,000 hours’ flying time, 3,700 hours in jet aircraft.

the testing of fighter aircraft built for the United States Air Force and some foreign countries. He logged more than 6,600 hours’ flying time, including 5,100 hours in jet aircraft.