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Alan Shepard

54 years ago today, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.
r/space

Share & discuss informative content on: * Astrophysics * Cosmology * Space Exploration * Planetary Science * Astrobiology


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54 years ago today, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.
r/space - 54 years ago today, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

Katherine Johnson, "human computer", famously calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, in 1962
r/OldSchoolCool

/r/OldSchoolCool **History's cool kids, looking fantastic!** A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. If you've found a photo, or a photo essay, of people from the past looking fantastic, here's the place to share it.


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Katherine Johnson, "human computer", famously calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, in 1962
r/OldSchoolCool - Katherine Johnson, "human computer", famously calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, in 1962

Alan Shepard takes a couple golf swings on the lunar surface 1971. Today would have been Alan’s 100th birthday.
r/OldSchoolCool

/r/OldSchoolCool **History's cool kids, looking fantastic!** A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. If you've found a photo, or a photo essay, of people from the past looking fantastic, here's the place to share it.


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Alan Shepard takes a couple golf swings on the lunar surface 1971. Today would have been Alan’s 100th birthday.


TIL In 1971, Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon. He made four swings, “a shank” with the third, and on the fourth swing he caught the ball flush. “Miles and miles and miles,” he said to the TV audience

TIL: Alan Shepard pulled out a makeshift six-iron he smuggled on board Apollo 14 and hit two golf balls on the lunar surface, becoming the first -- and only -- person to play golf anywhere other than Earth.



TIL When Alan Shepard was asked what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, "The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder."



TIL that NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard by hand, and was called on by NASA officials to verify the computer's calculations of John Glenn's orbit around Earth.




TIL When reporters asked astronaut Alan Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he replied: "The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder"




Astronaut Alan Shepard during preflight medical examination. 1961
r/OldSchoolCool

/r/OldSchoolCool **History's cool kids, looking fantastic!** A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. If you've found a photo, or a photo essay, of people from the past looking fantastic, here's the place to share it.


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Astronaut Alan Shepard during preflight medical examination. 1961
r/OldSchoolCool - Astronaut Alan Shepard during preflight medical examination. 1961



TIL... When Alan Shepard was waiting for liftoff to become the first American in space, a reporter asked him what he was thinking about. He replied "The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder." [Fixed Title]



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