Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of America's first manned space flight

Somehow, I neglected to mention that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of astronaut Alan B. Shepard's flight- the first American in space, who missed being the first human being in space by only 23 days.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat Shepard to that title, and somehow John H. Glenn's orbital flight less than a year later wholly overshadowed the mission of Friendship 7. But Shepherd- who retired as a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, and served as head of NASA's astronaut corps from November of 1963 through August of 1974- was the first American in space. Unlike either Gagarin or Glenn, Shepherd- as commander of the Apollo 14 mission- walked on the moon, the fifth human being to do so. Earlier, after being diagnosed with Ménière's disease, Shepherd had been disqualified from his assignment as commander of the first Gemini mission, being replaced by the second American in space, Gus Grissom.

After undergoing a newly-developed corrective surgery for his disability, Shepherd was restored to flight status in May of 1969. Originally assigned to the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, Shepherd felt that he needed more time to train, and as a result, commanded fellow astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa on the successful Apollo 14 mission instead. As the pilot of Antares, the lunar module for the mission, Shepard achieved the most accurate landing of any in the Apollo program, later achieving the distinction of being the first human being to play golf on the moon.

Shepard died of leukemia on July 21, 1998, the 29th anniversary of his moonwalk.