Alan Shepard as a student aviator (NASA History and Science)
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The seven men were selected from 500 applicants based on their engineering, physical, and cognitive abilities. One of the astronauts being Alan Shepard. Alan Shepard had the highest military rank among the seven other astronauts chosen along with an advanced career.
Business suit portrait of Alan Shepard (NASA)
Alan Shepard being elevated to the rank of rear admiral (Bettman Archive/ Getty Images)
John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I, Grissom and Alan B. Shepard Jr. standing by the Redstone rocket (NASA)
Dr. Robert ran the project Mercury and had the final say. On January 19, 1961 Alan Shepard was announced to fly the first mission to space as an American. For his first flight he was originally scheduled to go up on March 6, 1961, but there were some mechanical issues that needed to be fixed so it postponed the date. Finally on May 5, 1961 he went to space for 15 minutes and 28 seconds. It showed the world that “America was serious about the conquest of space.”