Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was the first american to travel into space. In 1959, Shepard won a coveted spot in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's program for space exploration. He and six others, including John Glenn and Gus Grissom, became known as the "Mercury 7." They were an elite group chosen from one hundred test pilot who have volunteered for the program.

Shepard made history on May 5, 1961, as his Freedom 7 spacecraft flew up into the sky from its Florida launch pad. He became the first American in space, a month after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had earned the distinction as the first person in space. After roughly four hours of delays, Shepard traveled more than 300 miles in his 15-minute-long mission. Shepard came down in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas, where he was picked up by the aircraft carrier Lake Champlain.

Shortly after returning to the United States, Shepard traveled to the White House to receive the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from President John F. Kennedy. He was also honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

For nearly a decade after his famous first mission, Shepard was grounded because of an ear problem. He had surgery to fix his condition, hoping to make it back into space. In 1971, Shepard got his wish. He and Ed Mitchell were selected for the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. They took off on January 31, 1971, and they spent more than 33 hours on the moon. During this mission, Shepard became the fifth person to walk on the moon, and the first to play golf on its surface. He had packed a specially designed golf club just for this purpose.