Talk:Alan Shepard

Shepard's Prayer

Shepard's Prayer redirects to Alan Shepard, yet there is no mention of it on the page. Should it be added? For those who don't know, it is usually quoted as "Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up", although Shepard claimed the words to be "Don't fuck up, Shepard". DuncanHill (talk) 12:06, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

I have added it to the Shepard's Prayer article. Feel free to expand it. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:01, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Reaction to Gagarin's flight

Neal Thompson says in his book Light This Candle that, when Shepard heard the news about Yuri Gagarin's flight, he "slammed his fist down on a table" next to a NASA officer (that's Thompson 2004, p. 282). However, in this article called First Step To The Moon, written by Shepard himself, he says he was sleeping in a hotel room when someone called telling him the news. So, which one should we trust more? Should we put them both in the article? Cléééston (talk) 03:22, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

His college major

What was Shepard's major at the Naval Academy? Please answer in the article. Thanks.CountMacula (talk) 18:48, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Alan Shepard spent eight (???) hours in the capsule

@Hawkeye7: The text says: "After being strapped into the capsule's seat, launch delays kept him in that suit for eight hours; Shepard's endurance gave out before launch, and he was forced to empty his bladder into the suit..." The source: https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/06/the-science-and-history-of-space-urination.html/ This source doesn't seem to be very reliable if it makes such glaring mistakes. See what the Mercury-Redstone 3 article says (emphasis added): "All of the delays resulted in Shepard lying on his back in the capsule for almost three hours, by which point he complained to the blockhouse crew that he had a severe need to urinate..." Or: "He entered the spacecraft at 5:15 am. ... Mercury-Redstone 3 finally lifted off at 9:34 am." This means that the total time Shepard stayed inside the capsule was 4 hours 19 minutes. P.S. Actually, he started entering the capsule at 5:18 according to Burgess (p. 122). 5:15 is the time when he boarded the elevator (Burgess, p. 121). Taurus Littrow (talk) 23:23, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

What was the time when he donned the space suit? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:25, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) That's the question; one thing we have to bear in mind, is that the suit was put on before he entered the capsule, therefore time inside the suit would have been longer than 4 hours 19 minutes; though, admittedly that doesn't necessarily account for all of the supposed extra four hours. Since he was the first astronaut to fly, perhaps suit preparation took longer than it later took? JustinTime55 (talk) 23:30, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

• First, regardless of how much Shepard stayed in the suit, the wording of the sentence is still quite confusing: "After being strapped into the capsule's seat, launch delays kept him in that suit for eight hours": It makes it look as if he stayed in the capsule eight hours. I'd reword it.
• Now, let's see how much Shepard stayed in his suit. Burgess doesn't mention clearly when Shepard started donning his suit, but it happened much less than eight hours before launch, since Shepard woke up at 1:10 (8 hours and a half before the launch eventually occurred), shaved, showered, took breakfast, and then went to the doctor. This is from Burgess: "Altogether, the medical and psychiatric assessments took a little under two hours. [...] Shepard was then assisted in donning his space suit. [...] At 3:55 a.m., carrying his portable air-conditioning unit, Shepard began to make his way downstairs." So the launch occurred 5 hours and a half after Shepard ended donning his spacesuit. Eight hours was the total time from Shepard's waking up until the launch. Taurus Littrow (talk) 06:56, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

• Another wrong statement from the same source is this (emphasis added): "...he was forced to empty his bladder into the suit, which shorted out the medical sensors attached to it to track the astronaut's condition in flight." - Well, that's not true, since the power had been turned off, a fact correctly pointed out in the Mercury-Redstone article: "...he [Shepard] told them to simply turn the power off. They complied, and Shepard emptied his bladder." Burgess mentions that, too (p. 134). Really, that source seems very unreliable (I found two mistakes already), and this is a featured article. I suggest to use some other source or sources. Taurus Littrow (talk) 07:54, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
• The first sentence sounds a bit sensationalist: Something not seen at the time by the public was Shepard's pre-launch "emergency". The last sentence seems irrelevant altogether, as it's not related to Shepard or his flight: After Shepard's flight, NASA called in the space suit's manufacturer, B. F. Goodrich, and by the time of John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbital flight the following year, a liquid waste collection feature had been built into the suit. Why not just copypaste the respective part from the MR-3 article? Taurus Littrow (talk) 08:35, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

  Because that part of the Mercury-Redstone 3 article is unsourced. There is a footnote that points to Shepard's book, but to a non-existent page 383, and the real page does not support what the text says. So that part of the MR-3 article has to be deleted and rewritten. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:27, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

  Yes, indeed, I just looked it up. That incident is described by other (more reliable) sources, though: Burgess (pp. 131-134) and Thompson (pp. 293-294). And both sources mention that the power was turned off. What do you think? Taurus Littrow (talk)

  I have rewritten the section, using the better sources. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:25, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Criticism

I think the account of Apollo 14 should include criticism of Shepard by scientists. According to the FA article on the mission, its geological results were disappointing because Shepard refused to take the training seriously. Dudley Miles (talk) 13:09, 8 June 2021 (UTC)