{"id":568532,"date":"2023-11-17T14:54:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T19:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?post_type=image-article&p=568532"},"modified":"2023-11-17T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T19:54:09","slug":"celebrating-astronaut-alan-shepards-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"image-article","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-astronaut-alan-shepards-100th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard’s 100th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1617\" height=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?w=1617\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Astronaut Alan Shepard smiles while wearing an all-silver pressure suit for the Mercury mission. He holds a white helmet in his hands.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg 2368w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=237,300 237w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=768,973 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=808,1024 808w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=1212,1536 1212w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=1617,2048 1617w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=316,400 316w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=474,600 474w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=710,900 710w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=947,1200 947w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?resize=1579,2000 1579w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1617px) 100vw, 1617px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., attired in his Mercury pressure suit, poses for a photo on May 5, 1961, prior to his launch in a Mercury-Redstone 3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital mission \u2013 the first U.S. manned spaceflight.<\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\">NASA<\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Born barely 20 years after the Wright Brothers\u2019 first flight, Alan Shepard grew up to fly combat missions in World War II, test multiple new aircraft, become the first American in space, and ultimately hit the first golf shot on the Moon. Born on Nov. 18, 1923, Shepard lifted off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission\/mercury-redstone-3-freedom-7\/\">Freedom 7<\/a> spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961, beginning 62 years of Americans\u2019 journeys into space. During the 15-minute suborbital flight, Shepard reached an altitude of 115 miles and traveled 302 miles. Grounded soon after by an inner-ear disorder, Shepard served as head of the astronaut office at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center. Corrective surgery returned him to flight status, and in 1971, he commanded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission\/apollo-14\/\">Apollo 14<\/a>, the third lunar landing mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image Credit: NASA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Born barely 20 years after the Wright Brothers\u2019 first flight, Alan Shepard grew up to fly combat missions in World War II, test multiple new aircraft, become the first American in space, and ultimately hit the first golf shot on the Moon. Born on Nov. 18, 1923, Shepard lifted off in the Freedom 7 spacecraft […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":334,"featured_media":568527,"template":"","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[]},"categories":[3703,3215,2656,2668,2718],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[],"coauthors":[8613],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard’s 100th Birthday","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-astronaut-alan-shepards-100th-birthday\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-astronaut-alan-shepards-100th-birthday\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg"},"articleSection":"Humans in Space","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Dunbar"}],"creator":["Brian Dunbar"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["Missions","Project Mercury","Alan B. Shepard Jr.","Former Astronauts","Humans in Space","People of NASA"],"dateCreated":"2023-11-17T19:54:08Z","datePublished":"2023-11-17T19:54:08Z","dateModified":"2023-11-17T19:54:09Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard’s 100th Birthday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-astronaut-alan-shepards-100th-birthday\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2023-11-17T19:54:08Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Humans in Space\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"Missions,Project Mercury,Alan B. Shepard Jr.,Former Astronauts,Humans in Space,People of NASA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Brian Dunbar\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":1,"featured_image":{"id":568527,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/s63-02082orig.jpg","title":"Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard’s 100th Birthday","alt":"Astronaut Alan Shepard smiles while wearing an all-silver pressure suit for the Mercury mission. He holds a white helmet in his hands.","caption":"Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., attired in his Mercury pressure suit, poses for a photo on May 5, 1961, prior to his launch in a Mercury-Redstone 3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital mission \u2013 the first U.S. manned spaceflight."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/568532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/image-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/568532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568535,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/568532\/revisions\/568535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568532"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=568532"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=568532"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=568532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}