Alan Shepard

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) (Rear Admiral, United States Navy, Ret.) was an American naval aviator and astronaut who became the second person, and the first American, in space. Ten years later, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

Original Mercury astronaut named in 1959, the first American in space during a suborbital flight reaching 116 miles altitude on 5th May 1961. Meniere's disease (an inner ear condition) grounded him until an operation in 1969 fixed the problem. He commanded Apollo 14, from 31st January to 9th February 1971, the third lunar mission. During that time he became the first and only man to golf on the moon. He died in 1998 two years after diagnosis with leukemia.