Alan Shepard reported: "Everything is A-Okay." A helicopter pulled him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship.

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STEVE EMBER: The flight was a complete success. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy declared a new goal for the United States. He called for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the nineteen sixties.

The original seven Mercury astronauts pose in their silver spacesuits in this 1961 file photo. From left, first row: Walter Schirra Jr., Donald Slayton, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. Back Row: Alan Shepard, Jr., Virgil Grissom and Gordon Cooper

In July of nineteen sixty-nine that goal came true. Alan Shepard was not on that first Apollo moon flight. In fact, he almost never made it to the moon. He developed a disorder in his inner-ear.

It kept him from spaceflight for a number of years. Finally, an operation cured his problem. NASA named Shepard to command Apollo Fourteen. The flight was launched at the end of January, nineteen seventy-one. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew.

Roosa orbited the moon while Shepard and Mitchell landed on the surface. They collected rocks and soil. Shepard also did something else. He played golf. He hit two small golf balls.

It was not easy. Shepard was dressed in a big spacesuit. He described his difficulty to Mission Control in Houston.