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size=5><STRONG>50th anniversary of 1st American in space</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Today, May 5, is the 50th anniversary of <STRONG>Alan
Shepard's</STRONG> historic journey into space in Freedom 7. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>His space flight was the first to meet the then FAI
requirements to qualify as a world record.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Alan Shepard's flight clocked up a number of
firsts</STRONG>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>He was the first person to reach space and land in the same
vehicle that he took-off in. Yuri Gagarin did not land in his capsule, instead
he jumped out and landed by parachute. The Soviets kept details of his landing
secret for many years because under the then FAI regulations, the flight would
only qualify as a world record if the pilot stayed inside the capsule all the
way to touchdown.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Alan Shepard was also the first to have some
control of the spacecraft</STRONG>, Yuri Gagarin's flight was on auto-pilot. The
launch and recovery by helicopter were televised live, another first.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Later in 1971, Alan Shepard commanded Apollo 14 and
famously played golf on the Moon with a six iron, the second of his shots going
as he said for "miles and miles and miles".</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>On the AMSAT bulletin board John Papay K8YSE wrote about
Alan Shepard's historic space flight. <BR>You can read his post at: </FONT><A
href="http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/48hour/msg86175.html"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/48hour/msg86175.html</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>It wasn't until May 18, 1991, 30 years after Alan Shepard's
historic flight, that an astronaut from the United Kingdom, Helen Sharman
GB1MIR, travelled into space on her flight to the MIR space station.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Watch this NASA video - Golf on the Moon <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZLl3XwlAIE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZLl3XwlAIE</A></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>