Alan B Shepard Research Papers

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Noah Eudy
Professor Dugdale
HIS 202-82
17 October 2015
Research Paper on Alan B. Shepard Jr.
“It’s been a long way, but we are here.” These few were the first words spoken from Alan Shepard, the commander of the Apollo 14 Kitty Hawk spacecraft, as he stepped onto the surface of the moon for the first time. Astronaut Shepard was a vital part of space exploration, not only for the United States of America but also for any other country involved in the space race. This research paper will give you a look into the life of Alan Shepard, his accomplishments, and how he helped the space race.
In the town of East Derry, New Hampshire, Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was born on the 18th of November 1923. Shepard attended East Derry’s one room schoolhouse …show more content…

He attended the United states Naval Academy at Annapolis where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. Shepard was then deployed to the pacific on the destroyer Cogswell in the last months of World War II. When he returned he married Louise Brewer whom he met while we was attending the Naval Academy.
Shepard attended naval flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas and Pensacola, Florida. However, he wanted his pilot’s license so bad that during his free time he would take flying lessons at the local airport. He earned his private pilot’s license before earning his naval aviator wings in March of 1947. After Shepard earned his wings, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 42 in Norfolk, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida. In 1950, after Flight Squadron 42 was deployed several times to the Mediterranean, Shepard went to the United States Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. From 1953 to 1956 he served two tours at Patuxent River after he graduated, where he did flight test work for the Navy. In those two tours he helped develop in my opinion, one of the most useful systems in military aviation, the Navy’s inflight refueling system. This system extended the range of aircraft tremendously. An extended range helped