Catherine the Great
93% Profile Match
NASA / Johnson Space Center, photo S70-45232, 14 July 1970, downscaled from the original · NASA Johnson Space Center photograph S70-45232, 'Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Apollo 14 mission commander' (caption date 14 July 1970, 'Photo credit: NASA'), downloaded from the NASA Image and Video Library original (2644 x 4009 pixels) and also catalogued on Wikimedia Commons as 'Alan B. Shepard 1970.jpg' (PD-USGov-NASA, same dimensions). NASA's Media Usage Guidelines say NASA content is generally not subject to copyright in the United States and that third-party copyrighted material is marked with the holder's name; this record carries only a NASA credit, no third-party credit and no logo. Downscaled once to 791 x 1200 (never upscaled). · Public Domain (NASA work)
astronaut · 20th Century
Alan Shepard
1923–1998
Known For
historicalscientificcultural
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
On 5 May 1961 he flew Freedom 7 on a Redstone rocket and became the first American in space, a suborbital flight of about 15 minutes to an altitude of about 116 miles; he was one of the seven Mercury astronauts named in April 1959.
In 1971 he commanded Apollo 14, the third crewed lunar landing, setting down in the Fra Mauro highlands with Edgar Mitchell; the two spent about 33 hours on the surface and brought back almost 100 pounds of samples, and he ended the second moonwalk by hitting golf balls.
From 1963, and again from 1971 until he retired in 1974, he was Chief of the Astronaut Office, responsible for coordinating, scheduling and training NASA's astronauts and, with Deke Slayton, helping to choose the Gemini and Apollo crews.
Moments That Reveal Them
After repeated failed attempts to dock with the lunar module on the way to the Moon, Shepard suggested that the crew suit up and bring the probe inside to inspect it; when Houston proposed retracting the probe under thrust instead, he repeated the plan back to Houston and made the retract call, and the spacecraft hard-docked about 4 hours 57 minutes into the flight, according to the Apollo 14 Flight Journal.
This is consistent with persistence at a problem that combines proposing alternatives with carrying out a ground-suggested fix carefully. Persistence
When the Apollo 13 crew was being decided, Shepard recommended himself as commander with Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell; headquarters objected, and after several days of talks the crews were swapped with Jim Lovell's, giving Shepard Apollo 14, according to Shepard, Mitchell and Lovell.
This is consistent with pressing for the assignment he wanted through internal negotiation and then accepting a compromise. Proactive Agency
Turning Points
In early 1961 Mercury director Robert Gilruth told the seven astronauts that Shepard would fly first, Gus Grissom second and John Glenn would back up both; Shepard recalled feeling elated and then sorry for his colleagues, and his flight came on 5 May, weeks after Yuri Gagarin's orbit.
This is consistent with the intense competition for the first flight that colleagues and Shepard himself describe. Competitiveness
Similar People
People whose overall profiles resemble theirs.
Martin Luther King Jr.
88% Profile Match
Toussaint Louverture
88% Profile Match
Wu Zetian
88% Profile Match
Benito Juarez
87% Profile Match
Aung San Suu Kyi
84% Profile Match
Sources
- Alan Shepard (Q174979) -- verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-15): English label 'Alan Shepard', description 'American astronaut, first American in space, lunar explorer (1923-1998)', born 18 November 1923, died 21 July 1998, citizenship United States, Korean label present. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- NASA Johnson Space Center, 'Biographical Data: Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.), NASA Astronaut (Deceased)', September 1998 -- the agency's official biography: named one of the Mercury astronauts in April 1959; first American in space on 5 May 1961 aboard Freedom 7 (a suborbital flight to 116 statute miles, landing 302 miles downrange); designated Chief of the Astronaut Office in 1963 with responsibility for coordinating, scheduling and controlling astronaut activities and training, a post he resumed in June 1971 until retiring in 1974; commander of Apollo 14 (31 January-9 February 1971), the third lunar landing, with Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell, landing in the Fra Mauro region, returning almost 100 pounds of samples after a 33-hour stay and a 9 hour 17 minute moonwalk. CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE (authoritative on dates and roles but honouring in tone, so used for the achievement cards and for institutional roles only; its medical, honours and political entries were not used). Read in full.
- Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood and Charles C. Alexander, 'This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury' (NASA SP-4201, NASA History Office), chapter 'Suborbital Flights into Space' -- official history of Shepard's selection for the first flight, his 120 simulated flights and his insistence, with operations director Walter Williams, on joining the preflight checkout, the holds of 2-5 May 1961 (about four hours in the capsule), his in-flight tasks (taking manual control of attitude, noticing a low pitch angle, a retropack indicator that did not light, a missed periscope filter, altitude call and manual valve), his debriefing observations and the aftermath. Official history by NASA-commissioned historians, factual and respectful, with some detail drawn from Shepard's own debrief. Read in full for this chapter; other chapters were searched for mentions only.
- Eric M. Jones and Ken Glover (eds.), Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, 'Apollo 14 Mission Summary: The Frustrations of Fra Mauro, Part II' (1995, revised 2015) -- historian-edited account of the landing about 30 metres from the aim point on an eight-degree slope, the crew talking Houston into shortening the rest period to get a full second moonwalk, the climb toward Cone Crater with the equipment cart (Shepard leading, counting cadence, calling a halt at a heart rate of 140, agreeing with Mitchell to press on, refusing to abandon the cart, the flight director's thirty-minute extension, sampling about 30 metres from a rim the crew never recognised), the crew's irritation at the end and the golf shots. Independent scholarly editorial account built on mission transcripts and debriefs. Read in full.
- Apollo 14 Flight Journal, 'Day 1, part 3: Transposition, Docking and Extraction' (W. David Woods, Ben Feist, Ronald Hansen and Johannes Kemppanen) -- annotated transcript and commentary on the docking trouble on the way to the Moon: repeated failed attempts to latch the probe, Shepard's suggestion of a suited inspection of the probe, Houston's alternative of retracting the probe under thrust, Shepard restating the plan, the hard dock about 4 hours 57 minutes into the flight and the crew's 1971 debrief comments. Independent historians' commentary on NASA transcripts; the text is copyrighted, so it is paraphrased only. Read the docking sections (about 3 h 13 m to 5 h 00 m GET); the rest of the page's transcript was skimmed, not read.
- Eric M. Jones (ed.), Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, 'Landing at Fra Mauro' (1995, revised 2016) -- annotated transcript of the abort-bit anomaly, the software workaround entered by Mitchell, Shepard's check of one detail of the revised procedure, the manual throttle-up (about 1.25 seconds late per the mission report), the landing radar failing to lock until the circuit breaker was cycled on Houston's call, Shepard's debrief crediting the ground, and Gene Kranz's memoir recalling that Shepard told the flight director he would have continued the approach without the radar while the ground believed he would have had to abort. Independent editorial commentary on mission records; it quotes memoirs and debriefs. Read the abort-bit, radar and landing-approach sections, not every line of transcript.
- NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Edgar D. Mitchell interviewed by Sheree Scarborough, 3 September 1997 -- the Apollo 14 lunar module pilot's recollection of the Apollo 13/14 crew assignment: Shepard, as chief of the Astronaut Office, had a lot to say about whom he flew with and chose Stuart Roosa and Mitchell; headquarters thought he needed more time to train and the crews were swapped with Lovell's. Crewmate's recollection decades later; the long sections on Mitchell's own later views were not used. Read the passages on the assignment.
- NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, James A. Lovell Jr. interviewed by Ron Stone, 25 May 1999 -- Lovell's recollection that Shepard talked Deke Slayton into giving him the next flight (Apollo 13), that NASA headquarters had second thoughts, and that Slayton then offered Lovell Apollo 13 and Shepard Apollo 14; also that competition for flights was aggressive but not that aggressive and that Slayton controlled crew selection. A peer directly affected by the swap; the medical reference in the passage was not used. Read the passages on the assignment.
- NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Alan B. Shepard Jr. interviewed by Roy Neal, 20 February 1998 -- Shepard's own account of the 1959 group's competition, Robert Gilruth's announcement that he would fly first, the extra unmanned flight before his, his role helping Slayton with crew assignments and his proposal of himself with Roosa and Mitchell for Apollo 13 and the compromise of Apollo 14. SELF account recorded five months before his death; used only to corroborate others, never as sole support for a row, and its medical passages were not used. Read the passages on selection, the flight, crew assignment and Apollo 13/14; the rest was skimmed.
- Arcynta Ali Childs, 'On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard Went to Outer Space and Came Home', Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2011 -- short anniversary article quoting National Air and Space Museum curator Michael Neufeld: the flight lasted about 15 minutes and helped show that the capsule and astronauts could fly in space; Shepard was fundamentally chosen because he came out as the best of the seven as far as leadership of the program was concerned, the sharpest and best trained; the golf at the end of the second moonwalk is what people remember of Apollo 14. Independent museum-curator view; the article's note on his medical history was not used. Read in full.
- Paul D. Spudis, 'Scientists vs. The Icy Commander', Air & Space Magazine (Smithsonian), 21 August 2009 -- lunar scientist's column: Shepard and Deke Slayton picked the Gemini and Apollo crews and colleagues learned not to cross him; he cheerfully called geology a low-grade science yet assured the scientists he would do his best; on the Cone Crater climb the geology back room was aghast at what it took as his declaring victory, but Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images 38 years later, Spudis argues, show he was at the rim. Critical and then revisionist view from the scientists' side; its reading of the images differs from the Surface Journal's note that the crew stopped about 30 metres from a rim it never recognised, and the medical reference was not used. Read in full.
- Jeff Foust, 'Review: Light This Candle' (Neal Thompson's biography of Shepard), The Space Review, 1 November 2004 -- review of the third-party biography: Shepard widely acknowledged as an excellent pilot and an intense competitor, particularly when he and John Glenn jockeyed for the first Mercury flight; he flirted with failure at the Naval Academy and flight school, and flat-hatting nearly led to a court martial, but each time turned his fortunes around with hard work and luck; the author interviewed colleagues and used an FBI dossier. One reviewer's summary of a book that was not opened here; its medical and private-life material was not used. Read in full.
- CNN, 'Alan Shepard was a pretty cool customer', 22 July 1998 -- obituary quoting Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff on the two sides of Shepard ('Smilin' Al' and the 'icily correct' career officer, the 'Icy Commander'), Wolfe's account of Shepard telling the launch team to fix its little problem and light the candle, Shepard's remark that everybody thought he was a pretty cool customer, his statement that being first of the seven was 'competition at its best', and a summary of Apollo 14 (nine hours of moonwalks, a tired and irritable crew, the golf shots). Independent news summary; the Wolfe material is one writer's narrative relayed second-hand; the passages on illness, family, money and unrelated personal anecdotes were not used. Read in full.
- Newsweek, 'Al Just Left Us All Behind', 3 August 1998 (byline shown as Newsweek Editors) -- first-person remembrance written at his death by one of the other Mercury astronauts: Shepard determined to be head of the pack, desperately wanting to be the first man in space, reacting to Gagarin's flight with language that could not be printed, doing what it took to get a job done, proud of his 'Icy Commander' reputation for aloofness and disliking the press; it also tells personal anecdotes about cars and speeding, which were not used. A colleague's affectionate memoir, so admiring and anecdotal. Read in full.
- NASA Image and Video Library record S70-45232 (Johnson Space Center), 'Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Apollo 14 mission commander' (caption date 14 July 1970, 'Photo credit: NASA'), with NASA's Media Usage Guidelines and the Wikimedia Commons file page 'Alan B. Shepard 1970.jpg' -- checked for the portrait's basis. Not used for any scoring.