Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009

Alan Shepard

Commander, Apollo 14

1923-1998

Life as an astronaut: Led landing mission that helped restore NASA's confidence after the near disaster of Apollo 13; with his popgun suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7, in 1961, became the first American in space

Life as a civilian: Had a keen eye for business and thrived in real estate development, investments and a beer distributorship; co-authored a book with astronaut Deke Slayton