Alan bartlett shepard jr biography

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However, the first manned flights of Gemini were at that time planned for a year in the future and so a significant hiatus in U.S. manned spaceflight looked likely.²⁵

One of the options considered by NASA officials in early 1963 was to fly another Mercury-Atlas spacecraft in order to increase U.S.

manned spaceflight experience and to fill the gap before the first manned Gemini launch. McDonnell's Mercury spacecraft contract was terminated on June 13 and the MA-10 spacecraft was placed in storage at Cape Canaveral thereby losing its chance of ever getting into orbit.²⁷

After the cancellation of Shepard's second Mercury flight, he began training with Frank Borman, a member of the second group of astronauts selected by NASA, for the flight of the first manned Gemini mission.

1. He was graduated from the Naval Academy on June 7, 1944.³ After graduation, Shepard was commissioned as an ensign and during the final year of World War II he served on the destroyer Cogswell deployed in the Pacific.⁴ At war's end, on March 3, 1945, Shepard married the former Louise Brewer, of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, whom he had met while he was a midshipman at the Naval Academy.⁵

After the war, he underwent naval flight training at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas, and Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida.

263.22.Ibid.23.Hall of Science and Exploration, p.

His father was a banker. He later founded his own business company, Seven Fourteen Enterprises, named for his two missions on Freedom 7 and Apollo 14.³⁸

In 1984, he and the other surviving Mercury astronauts, along with Betty Grissom, the widow of astronaut Gus Grissom, founded the Mercury Seven Foundation to raise money for scholarships for science and engineering students in college.³⁹ In 1995, the organization was renamed the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

1.9.Ibid.10.Ibid.11.Ibid., p. For several days Shepard felt fine, his episode apparently behind him. Shepard's fascination with aviation began in high school, where he enrolled in a pilot training program. 168.29.Ibid., p.

24.27.Ibid.28.Shepard, p. It came back several times and Shepard knew something was dangerously, terribly wrong so he checked in with the flight surgeons.²⁹

He was diagnosed with Meniere's syndrome, a condition in which fluid pressure builds up in the inner ear and makes the semicircular canals and motion detectors extremely sensitive.

He was operations officer of the unit and made two trips with it to the Western Pacific aboard the Carrier Oriskany.¹¹ After completing his second tour at Patuxent, he attended Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, and was subsequently assigned to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, as an aircraft readiness officer.¹²

In 1959 the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invited 110 top test pilots to volunteer for the manned space flight program.

662.4."Adm. It turned out later that his name had been among the 110, but his invitation had been misplaced.¹³ Of the original 110, Shepard was among the seven chosen for Project Mercury and presented to the public at a press conference on April 9, 1959, held in the ballroom of the historic Dolley Madison House, NASA's temporary headquarters on Lafayette Square.¹⁴ The other six were Virgil I.

(Gus) Grissom, John H. Glenn, Jr., Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, Malcolm S. (Scott) Carpenter, Walter M. (Wally) Schirra, Jr., and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. These seven were subjected to an unprecedented and grueling training in the sciences and in physical endurance. 663.25.Wilson, Keith T. "Mercury Atlas 10: A Mission Not Flown." Quest (Winter 1993): 23–2526.Ibid., p.

After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1944, he served in the Pacific during World War II.

Navy Career and Test Pilot

From 1950 to 1953 and 1955 to 1957, Shepard trained at the Navy Test Pilot School. Hereafter referred to as JSC Biography.8."Alan B. Shepard, Jr." Manned Spacecraft Center Biographical Data. Houston, Texas.

NASA Administrator James Webb announced before the U.S. Senate Space Committee on June 12, 1963, that Mercury had accomplished its goals and that priority should go to the new Gemini program. He was project test pilot on the F5D Skylancer and spent his last five months there as an instructor in the test pilot school.¹⁰ Between these two tours, from 1953 to 1956, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 193 at Moffett Field, California, a night fighter unit flying Banshee jets.

Every conceivable situation the men would encounter in space travel was studied and, when possible, simulated with training devices.¹⁵

Shepard quickly established himself as a first-rate pilot and engineer.