1 min readSixty-five years ago yesterday, New Hampshire native Alan Shepard became the first American to slip the surly bonds of Earth, etc. etc. etc. His suborbital flight, really little more than a cannon shot. What goes up must come down. Nevertheless, it was a unique time in history. The Soviet Union had beaten the United States into space and into orbit. Yuri Gagarin had done one lap around that took him 108 minutes, 93 minutes longer than Shepard’s flight. Shepard got his own back, however. In February of 1971, Shepard walked on the moon as commander of Apollo 14. He became famous for hitting a couple of golf shots in the Fra Mauro highlands. Three years earlier, Yuri Gagarin died in a mysterious plane crash.
To celebrate Shepard’s flight, we recommend reciting the prayer Alan Shepard said upon entering Freedom 7, his spacecraft, on May 5, 1961. It has some relevance to the state of our nation here in 2026.
“Dear Lord, please don’t let me fck up.”
It’s the best we can hope for.
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