2023-11-20 09:45:42
When the Russian Yuri Gagarin was about to become the first human being to fly into space, in the United States there was another astronaut like him who was also about to do the same. The space race between the Soviet Union and the United States was at one of its highest points. The tension over this competition was very strong in the upper echelons of each of the two superpowers. The secret services of each frantically searched for clues that would allow them to deduce how advanced the rival superpower was in this regard. The difference between the progress of one and the other could be very few weeks, or even days. Furthermore, a failed launch that forced the preparation of a new attempt could give the opposing superpower a decisive margin of time that would allow it to take the lead.
Finally, Yuri Gagarin was the first to travel to space, on April 12, 1961. The second human to travel to space was the American Alan Shepard, of whom this year 2023 marks the centenary of his birth. Shepard made his space flight on May 5, 1961. Although Shepard’s flight was more modest than Gagarin’s as it did not enter Earth orbit, it strengthened the position of the United States as a robust contender in the space race between the two. superpowers. Furthermore, years later, Shepard had the satisfaction of stepping on the Moon, something no Soviet person had achieved.
Alan Shepard was born on November 18, 1923, just 20 years after the first powered flight, that of the Wright brothers’ plane on December 17, 1903, in the United States.
Shepard began as an aviator and participated as a pilot in aerial combat in World War II.
Alan Shepard in his Mercury ship, about to begin his first flight into space and the second by a human being. (Photo: NASA)
At the dawn of the space age, Shepard, who served as a test pilot, was chosen as a member of the first official group of United States astronauts, who began their work on the first American manned program, Mercury. This legendary group is known as “The Mercury Seven” and was also nicknamed “The Magnificent Mercury Seven.”
A medical problem prevented him from flying into space again for a few years. But in 1969, once this problem was solved through surgery, he returned to being active. In 1971, he traveled to the Moon as commander of Apollo 14, the third manned lunar landing mission. Shepard and Edgar D. Mitchell landed on the Moon, while Stuart A. Roosa, the third crew member, remained in lunar orbit. In addition to the formal scientific work he did with Mitchell, Shepard participated in a curious anecdotal experiment: he played golf on the lunar surface. Being the first human to do so, he was able to see the big difference between playing under Earth’s gravity and doing it under lunar gravity.
After his lunar adventure, Shepard held the position of head of the astronaut corps for a time and also rose in the military establishment, becoming a Navy admiral. He later retired from NASA and the Navy, worked in the private sector, and was actively involved in promoting astronautics.
He died on July 21, 1998, a month before his wife, Louise. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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