50 years ago: Alan Shepard first American in space

William Atkins
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 23:09

Science - Space

Fifty years ago, on May 5, 1961, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to go into space. Shepard became a true American hero at a time when it looked like the United States was losing the race to explore space.

It is a good time to look back on the celebrated life of Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., the first American in space, and the fifth astronaut to walk on the Moon.

With Yuri Gagarin already back on Earth after his orbital flight into space, it looked like the United States was technologically inferior to the Soviet Union when it came to getting humans into space.

However, all that changed when Alan Shepard was launched into space on May 5, 1961.

Here are some facts about NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy pilot Alan Shepard:

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was born on November 18, 1923, in Derry, New Hampshire, to his father, Lt. Colonel Alan B. Shepard, Sr., and his mother, Renza (Emerson) Shepard. He died on July 21, 1998, in Pebble Beach, California, from leukemia.

He was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, where as a pilot he logged over 8,000 hours of flying time '” 3,700 hours in jet aircraft.

In 1959, NASA selected Shepard to be one of the original group of seven Mercury astronauts.

He was the second person in space (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first), and the first American in Space. He was the fifth person to walk on the Moon. However, he was the first person to safely return to Earth inside his spacecraft. Gagarin parachuted from his vehicle before it landed.

As the first American in space, Shepard rode a Redstone rocket named Freedom 7 approximately 116 miles (187 kilometers) into the sky and 303 miles (486 kilometers) from the launch pad in Florida. It was a suborbital flight into space. He had controls of his spacecraft, unlike Gagarin's first flight into space in which he was only a passenger.

He also originated Shepard's Prayer (that he stated for the first time just before going into space for the first time), which I won't quote here. Please look it up yourself.

Page two concludes with more about Alan Shepard.