Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and entrepreneur from the United States.
He was the second person and first American to travel into space in 1961, and he walked on the Moon in 1971.
Shepard served in the surface navy during World War II after graduating from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.
In 1946, he became a Navy aviator, and in 1950, he became a test pilot. In 1959, he was chosen as one of NASA’s original Mercury Seven astronauts, and in May 1961, he flew the first crewed Project Mercury mission, Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he dubbed Freedom 7.
His craft made it into space, but it was unable to reach orbit. He was the second person to journey into space, and the first American, as well as the first to physically control the orientation of his craft.
Was Alan Shepard’s wife Louise Shepherd at the launch on the day of the space mission?
Yes, Alan Shepard’s wife Louise Shepherd was at the launch on the day of the space mission. Shepard embraced his wife, Louise Shepard, and told her that she had her arms around the world’s first spaceman.