On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepherd became the first  American in space when he took a 15 minute sub-orbital flight over the Pacific Ocean for 304 miles. Shepherd later recalled that he only had a 30 second view out of Mercury 3's window.

10 years later he got a better view of space. As the commander of Apollo 14 (January 31-February 9, 1971) he spent two days on the Moon. Shepherd was the only one of the seven Mercury astronauts to go to the Moon.

Alan Shepherd retired from NASA and the Navy in 1974.