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On May 5, 1961, test pilot Alan B. Shepard Jr, one of the nation's original seven Mercury astronauts, became the first American to fly into space, riding his Freedom 7 spacecraft on a 16-minute, 115-mile-high suborbital flight. A decade later, after overcoming an inner ear problem that grounded him for 5½ years, Shepard became the fifth person to walk on the moon as commander of the Apollo 14 mission in February 1971. His vision of a place to honor former astronauts led to the dedication in 1990 of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. In 1984, he and other Mercury astronauts established the Mercury Seven Foundation, now known as the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, to provide scholarships for college science and engineering students. His devotion to the growth of the Hall of Fame and the Foundation are among his major legacies.

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