Apollo 14 Archives

May 10, 2011April 13, 2022 by Ken Kremer

50th Anniversary Ceremony Recreates First US Manned Spaceflight by Alan Shepard

Speakers at the May 5, 2011 celebration marking the 50th Anniversary of Alan Shepard’s first flight in space by an American astronaut included NASA officials and astronauts, Alan Shepard’s family and news media and community organizers. The event took place at the very launch pad from which Shepard blasted into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on May 5, 1961. Credit: Ken Kremer

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NASA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first American manned spaceflight at a special ceremony on May 5, 2011 which recreated every moment of that short suborbital flight by the late Mercury astronaut Alan B. Shepard. The event unfolded from the very spot and launch pad 5/6 where he blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on May 5, 1961.

Shepard’s entire 15 ½ minute suborbital spaceflight aboard the “Freedom 7” capsule was replayed in a multimedia audio and video presentation that was projected on a Jumbotron erected off to the side of an 82 foot tall replica of his Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket.

Three daughters of Alan Shepard (Laura Churchley, Julie Jenkins and Alice Wackermann) pose in front of 82-foot- tall replica of Mercury-Redstone rocket which Shepard rode to space 50 years ago. Credit: Ken Kremer

The recreation was precisely timed to coincide with the exact events of the historic mission from the launch at 9:34 a.m. to the ocean splashdown some 15 minutes later at 9:49 a.m. just as they occurred 40 years ago on May 5, 1961.

The multimedia replay began at the T minus 5 minute mark in the countdown with restored voice tapes and film footage and included every single word spoken by Shepard, live views from inside his “Freedom 7” capsule, shots of the Earth below, the spaceship descending by parachute and the naval recovery vessels.

The memorial event took place at Alan Shepard’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral to recall and honor the results and legacy of the flight.

Fellow “Original 7” Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter did a lively play by play commentary of all the events of Shepard’s flight as it was broadcast on the Jumbotron. Carpenter was the 2nd American to orbit the Earth after John Glenn.

A crowd of more than 700 folks attended including top NASA officials and spaceflight dignitaries; NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter; 20 members of Shepard ‘s family including his three daughters; Jack King, former chief of NASA’s Public Information Office; Bob Moser, former Chief Test Conductor, many people who worked on Project Mercury, Florida Space Coast community leaders as well as numerous space exploration fans who journeyed here from all across the globe.

Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke, a friend and colleague of Shepard was also on hand for the festivities.

Speakers at the May 5, 2011 celebration marking the 50th Anniversary of Alan Shepard’s first flight in space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on May 5, 1961. Credit: Ken Kremer

“In the audience today, we have more than 100 workers from the Mercury era who devoted their lives to flying humans safely in space,” said Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana.

“You should be extremely proud of what you did for our country and for humankind,” Cabana added, as he asked them to stand and be applauded and thanked for their service by the audience.

The 50th anniversary commemoration was sponsored by NASA and local space historians and community officials.

“I remember every time he spoke, he always gave credit to everyone in NASA who built the good ships that brought him home to us safely,” said Shepard’s daughter Laura Churchley. “We thank you all very much.”

“To me — and I’ve gone through hundreds of launches and done countdowns in hundreds of launches — the first is always very special,” said Jack King. “I must admit, it’s the only one when I was misty-eyed. The first American in space! I couldn’t be prouder. And I couldn’t be prouder for being a part of it.”

Project Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter and Hugh Harris, Shepard event organizer and NASA shuttle launch commentator. Carpenter is one of only two surviving “Original 7” Mercury astronauts.
Credit: Ken Kremer

The ceremony was organized by Hugh Harris, retired NASA space shuttle Launch commentator, and longtime NBC Newsman Jay Barbree who is the only journalist to cover every American manned space mission.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden salutes Alan Shepard and all the space workers who made Shepard’s historic mission possible at the 50th anniversary event on May 5, 2011 celebrating this milestone achievement in human history. Credit: Ken Kremer

“It’s an honor to share this day with so many people who helped NASA pioneer human spaceflight and enable the agency’s many accomplishments throughout our existence,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “I salute all of you.”

Shepard’s flight blasted off barely three weeks after Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961.

The successful outcome of Shepard’s mission emboldened then President Kennedy to declare that America “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” just three weeks later on May 20, 1961.

Alan Shepard later became the fifth human to set foot on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 14 mission. Apollo 14 blasted off on Jan. 31, 1971.

Shepard was the only member of the “Original 7” Mercury astronauts to walk on the moon and did so along with Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell. They touched down in the Fra Mauro region originally intended as the landing site for Apollo 13.

Kudos to Harris and Barbree for an outstanding effort taking everyone back in time and staging a thrilling “You are There!” experience to relive the events as they unfolded 50 years ago.

Over 100 space workers from the Mercury era attended the Alan Shepard ceremony and posed for a group photo on the 50th anniversary of the historic flight. Credit: Ken Kremer

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Ken Kremer
chat following the 50th Anniversary memorial event recreating Alan Shepard’s first manned spaceflight by an American astronaut. Bolden is a former astronaut and flew 4 times on the Space Shuttle and helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: Ken Kremer

Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke and Ken Kremer speak at Alan Shepard ceremony.
Credit: Ken Kremer

82-foot- tall replica of Mercury-Redstone rocket which blasted Alan Shepard to space 50 years ago on May 5, 1961 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: Ken Kremer

February 4, 2011December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Brand New Look at Apollo 14 Landing Site

Latest view of the Apollo 14 landing site by LRO. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

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40 years ago this week, the Apollo 14 crew landed on the Moon. Here’s the latest look at their landing site, just downloaded from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Narrow Angle Cameras. Even though LRO has imaged this area before, this seems to be a much better, crisper view of the lander and the ALSEP experiment package left of the Moon by Al Shepard and Edgar Mitchell. Also visible are the tracks left where the astronauts walked repeatedly in a “high traffic zone” and perhaps by the Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET) wheelbarrow-like carrier used on Apollo 14. Below are a couple of close-up looks at the image.

A closer view of the Apollo 14 landing site. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

The LROC folks say that every time LRO passes overhead the different landing sites, the Sun is at a different position so each image gives a different perspective. Additionally, since the position of the lunar modules and other pieces of hardware are very accurately known, the LROC team can check the accuracy of the mission-provided ephemeris.

Closer yet: Apollo 14, as seen by LRO, cleaned up and zoomed in by Carlos Ayala.

Thanks to UT reader Carlos Ayala who sent in this this sharpened and enhanced “closer” close-up. He captured the original image on the LRO site, and “using CS3 I enlarged the area and applied a Bicubic smoothing filter to the re-sampled image. The resulting image is set to 1200 x 1200 pixels,” he wrote us. Click on the image for a larger version.

You can compare the old images with this new one.

Source: LROC

January 31, 2011December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

More Space Anniversaries: Apollo 14 and Ham

Chimpanzee Ham after the successful Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) suborbital flight. Credit: NASA

Forty years ago today, the Apollo 14 crew launched on their Saturn V rocket, the 6th human flight to the Moon and the third that landed. Following the heart-stopping problems of Apollo 13, almost ten months elapsed before Commander Alan Shepard (the first American in space), Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell set off on January 31, 1971. They reached the Moon on February 5, and Shepard and Mitchell walked the Fra Mauro highlands, originally been the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. The two astronauts had to scrap a planned rock-collecting trip to the 1,000 foot wide Cone Crater when they became disoriented and almost got lost. Interestingly, recent images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed they were only a little over 30 yards from the crater’s rim when they gave up the search. But they did have many successes as well.

You can read more about Apollo 14 on this NASA website.

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Also on this date 50 years ago was the flight that made Alan Shepard’s suborbital Mercury flight possible: the Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) mission carrying Ham, a four-year-old male chimpanzee. The suborbital flight lasted a total of 16 minutes and 39 seconds, and carried the spacecraft 422 nautical miles from the launch site at Cape Canaveral, FL, reaching a maximum altitude of 157 statute miles. The flight reached all its objectives, paving the way for human flights.

When you think about it, 10 years from Ham to Apollo 14 is pretty amazing. But we’re not likely to ever see anything like that again.

October 9, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

LRO Spots Apollo 14 Booster Crash Site on Moon

Apollo 14 booster impact site on the Moon. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

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Speaking of lunar impacts: While we await the science data from the LCROSS mission impact earlier this morning, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team has released this image of another impact on the Moon 38 years ago . The crater in the center of this image was formed by Apollo 14’s Saturn IVB booster. The booster was intentionally impacted into the lunar surface on Feb. 4, 1971. The impact caused a minor “moonquake” that scientists used to learn about the moon’s interior structure. Seismometers placed on the surface by the Apollo 12 astronauts returned data on the tremor.

The crater is about 35 meters (115 feet). The interior of the crater has bright mounds, and a bright ejecta blanket surrounds the exterior of the crater. Bright rays are observed to extend across the surface for more than 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from the impact. This LROC image was taken when the sun was relatively high in the sky, bringing out subtle differences in reflectivity or brightness. This site has been observed before, and scientists noted the unusual occurrence of dark and bright rays when the Apollo 16 spacecraft observed the site.

Comparing the Apollo booster impact to LCROSS, the Apollo impact velocity was at 9,144 kph (5,682 mph.) The booster component weighed 14,000 kg (30,835 lbs) at the time of impact, and the impact energy was equivalent to just over 10 tons of TNT. A seismometer placed in 1969 by Apollo 12 astronauts recorded the vibrations, which lasted for about three hours. The LCROSS impactor (the upper stage of a Centaur rocket) is much smaller than the S-IVB and thus will make a smaller crater. The Centaur weighs about 2000 kg (4,409 lbs) and will hit with a velocity of about 9,000 kph (5,592 mph.)

So anyone worried about the LCROSS impact; don’t worry, the Moon has seen much worse from earlier impacts — both intentional by humans and the unintentional consequences of being in a space-dust and -debris filled region of space.

Source: NASA