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Alan Shepard Rivalry

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In the 20th century, the United States of America was involved in a space race with the USSR. Each country wanted to best the other in terms of spaceflight. Alan Shepard played a big role in this rivalry. A major figure, he is known for being the first American in space. He also was the first person to play golf on the moon. In addition, he was one of the first 7 astronauts NASA chose. Alan B. Shepard was born on November 18, 1923 in East Derry, New Hampshire. He grew up on a farm with his parents. As a child, he liked to help out at the local airfield so he could learn more about airplanes. This early influence would lead to a career in space travel. He attended primary and secondary school in New Hampshire as well. Being an excellent student, …show more content…

On March 3, 1945, he married Louise Brewer. He continued on with his education and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1951. He also attended Naval War College, which he graduated from in 1957. As a test pilot he tested many different planes, including the F5D Skylancer and the F3H Demon. He also joined a fighter unit in California called Fight Squadron 193. Later in his life he received many other degrees, among them Honorary Doctorates of Science and Humanities.
In April of 1959, NASA recruited Shepard as one of the Mercury Seven. A few of his contemporaries at NASA were Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Gus Grissom. They trained for two years and Shepard was chosen to be the first American in space. However, he would not be the first in history since Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, had already made it to space a few weeks earlier. On May 5, 1961, Shepard flew a one-man Mercury spacecraft. On this mission, Shepard flew up 116 miles and then returned to Earth, all in about 15 minutes. All he did on this mission was enter space; he did not orbit …show more content…

This problem led Shepard being grounded. Instead of being an astronaut, he became the chief of the astronaut office. In this job, he helped out with plan missions and prepare astronauts for their missions. Finally, in 1968, he had a surgery to fix his medical problem. However, NASA still opted to choose other astronauts for these missions. During this time, the Apollo 11 and 12 missions were taking place.
Shepard’s wish came true in 1971. He was the commander of the Apollo 14 mission, set to go to the moon. He had a two man crew of Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. Roosa was the command module pilot and Mitchell was the lunar module pilot. They took off on January 31, 1971 on the Saturn V Rocket. This rocket was of the Heavy Lift Vehicle genre, which meant it was very powerful. This rocket would eventually help launch Skylab as well in 1973. Alan and Edgar landed on the moon on February 15, 1971.
On Shepard’s second mission of his career, he spend more than 33 hours on the moon. The time was spanned over two spacewalks. Shepard and Mitchell collected over 100 pounds of moon rocks. They also did science experiments on the moon to test the environment. Shepard had even brought a special golf club to play golf on the moon. He wanted to play golf to see what would happen with the moon’s lower

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