The fifth person to walk on the Moon. He was the first American in space, as pilot of the suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 mission on board the Freedom 7 capsule May 1961, and commanded the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission 1971. Shepard was born in New Hampshire and studied at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. After working as a naval pilot and test pilot, he was selected to be a NASA astronaut 1959; he resigned 1974.
