NASA Astronaut Alan Shepard, 1961 First in Space, 1971 Apollo 14 Walked on Moon

Description

An Official color NASA Astronaut Alan Shepard.  Shepard was one of the original seven US Mercury Astronauts, in 1961 he was the first American to fly into space and ten years later in 1971 on Apollo 14 he walked on the Moon.  Astronaut Shepard became
one of the 12 American Astronauts that have
walked on the Moon.
The NASA photo is in very nice near mint or mint condition.
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Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
(November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American
astronaut
,
naval aviator
,
test pilot
, and businessman. In 1961, he became the first American to travel into space, and in 1971, he walked on the
Moon
.
A graduate of the
United States Naval Academy
at
Annapolis
, Shepard saw action with the surface navy during
World War II
. He became a naval aviator in 1946, and a test pilot in 1950. He was selected as one of the original
NASA
Mercury Seven
astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made the first crewed
Project Mercury
flight,
Mercury-Redstone 3
, in a spacecraft he named
Freedom 7
. His craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving
orbit
. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space, and the first space traveler to manually control the orientation of his craft. In the final stages of Project Mercury, Shepard was scheduled to pilot the
Mercury-Atlas 10
(MA-10), which was planned as a three-day mission. He named Mercury Spacecraft 15B
Freedom 7 II
in honor of his first spacecraft, but the mission was canceled.
Shepard was designated as the commander of the first crewed
Project Gemini
mission, but was grounded in 1963 due to
Ménière's disease
, an inner-ear ailment that caused episodes of extreme dizziness and nausea. This was surgically corrected in 1969, and in 1971, Shepard commanded the
Apollo 14
mission, piloting the
Apollo Lunar Module
Antares
. At age 47, he became
the fifth, the oldest, and the earliest-born person to walk on the Moon
, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. During the mission, he hit two
golf balls
on the
lunar surface
.