Grounded by an ear disorder, Alan Shepard came back to golf on the Moon
In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Two years later an inner-ear disorder causing violent dizziness grounded him. Surgery fixed it in 1968, and in 1971, at 47, he commanded Apollo 14, becoming the oldest person to walk on the Moon and hitting two golf balls across its surface.
Shepard was born in Derry, New Hampshire, on November 18, 1923, a descendant of a Mayflower passenger. A bright pupil, he skipped two grades, and flight fascinated him early: he founded a model airplane club at school, got a ride in a Douglas DC-3 for Christmas in 1938, and cycled to a nearby airfield to do odd jobs in return for flights. Tests later put his IQ at 145, though his grades stayed mediocre.
His father wanted him in the Army; he chose the Navy. At 16 he was too young to enter the Naval Academy after passing its exam, so he spent a year at a prep school first, then graduated early in June 1944 because of the war. Aboard the destroyer Cogswell in the Pacific, he helped rescue 172 sailors from a torpedoed cruiser, rode out Typhoon Cobra and fought off kamikaze attacks. He earned his wings as a naval aviator in 1947 and moved into test flying in 1950.
Chosen as one of NASA's original Mercury Seven in 1959, he flew Freedom 7 in May 1961, reaching space but not orbit and becoming the second human in space. He was lined up to command the first crewed Gemini flight when Ménière's disease grounded him in October 1963. He spent the time running the Astronaut Office.
Flying the lander Antares on Apollo 14 made him the sole member of the original Mercury Seven ever to set foot on the lunar surface. On August 25, 1971, he became the first astronaut promoted to rear admiral, and he retired from both the Navy and NASA in 1974. He died on July 21, 1998.
Source: Alan Shepard
