Learning Center
Our Enshrinees
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Enshrined: 1977
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Birth: November 18, 1923
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Death: July 21, 1998
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
- Served as a Navy fighter pilot and test pilot with over 8,000 flying hours.
- Selected as one of seven astronauts to participate in Project Mercury, the United States’ first manned space program.
- First American to make a suborbital flight in the Project Mercury program on Freedom 7, May 5th, 1961. As the spacecraft sped upward on its long arced flight and neared a maximum altitude of 116 miles, Shepard experienced weightlessness for five minutes, performed 27 major tasks, and sent 70 communications back to Earth.
- Presented with NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal by President Kennedy for his 1961 space flight.
- Named Chief of the Astronaut Office of NASA where he was responsible for training astronauts for ten Gemini-Titan and three Apollo-Saturn missions in the next five years.
- Spent more than 33 hours on the moon in 1971 as commander of Apollo 14. It was on this trip that Shepard attached a golf club head to his hand tool and whacked away at several balls. He reportedly made the first “crater-in-one.”
- Received New York City’s Medal of Honor along with the crew of Apollo 14.
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Enshrined: 1977
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Birth: November 18, 1923
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Death: July 21, 1998
You’re Invited 2023 Enshrinement
Join us for the “Oscar Night of Aviation” as we induct a new group of aviation leaders into the National Aviation Hall of Fame!
Friday, September 22, 2023
National Building Museum | Washington, DC
Sponsorships are now available!
Learn More