Skip to main content

Freedom 7 - 60th Anniversary

Podcast - Freedom 7; 60th Anniversary.

"Man must rise above the Earth - to the top of the atmosphere and beyond - for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives." - Socrates 500 B.C.

May 5, 2021, will mark the 60th anniversary of the launch of Freedom 7. Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr. became the first American in space.

A 15-minute sub-orbital flight, a day for the history books; the entire world was watching. NASA and the world had witnessed many trial runs explode violently on the launch pad. The space program was in its infancy. Unlike today, there were far too many unknowns.

This prompted me to pull out one of my favorite books from my office library, Light This Candle, by Neal Thompson, copyright 2004. Light this Candle is a biography of Alan Shepard, Jr. you won't be able to put down.

Its - "Story-telling at its best . . . every page is alive," says David Hartman, U.S Naval Institute.

In the opening pages, you read endorsements from various publications and famous people. But my favorite is this:

"Shepard was a very complicated individual. He had all the attributes to be successful, but he always lived on the edge. He had the perseverance to live through his Medical problems to finally fly to the moon, but he didn't always follow the rules. Light this Candle captures the many facets of Alan Shepard." - Captain James Lovell.

Check out this excerpt from the book.

Of the Mercury Seven, when asked, Why Shepard? NASA's gruff spokesman, Shorty Powers, tried to explain to the press how "the Mercury Seven astronauts were all exceptional men, nerves of steel, and among the nation's most fearless test pilots.”

But one had to go first, and "Shepard had what all the others had, with just enough to spare to make him the logical first choice." Whatever that meant.

According to Thompson, the truth that NASA chose not to acknowledge was that NASA simply picked based astronaut sequence on what they thought best. But for television and the press - the question "Why Shepard?" "We wanted to put our best foot forward. So we picked the best of the best.”

Let's go back to the morning of May 5; this paraphrased excerpt is priceless; "After more than three hours in the capsule, on the launch pad, he felt it, and hoped it would go away." Shepard had to urinate. Bad.

The sub-orbital flight was supposed to last just 15 minutes, so no one had prepared for anything like this. Al radioed cap com, "Man, I got to pee," Shepard said. He suggested bringing the gantry back and letting him out to go. But Wernher von Braun said no.

Finally, Shepard began shouting. In a conversation that would be stricken from the NASA transcript. "If you guys don't let me out, I'll go in this suit!”

Shepards' spacesuit was electrically wired with a variety of biomedical sensors. Imagine the newspaper headlines; "NASA Astronaut dies on the launchpad electrocuted by his own urine.”

It's quite a story! Read the book Light This Candle by Neal Thompson.

On this 60th anniversary of the launch of Freedom 7 and America's first man in space, we celebrate, once again, an American hero, Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

"Won't you be my virtual neighbor?" If you enjoy our weekly visits, please share them with a friend.

This is Patrick Ball; thanks so much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

The Language of Home: Building a Sanctuary

This episode is  for anyone trying to find their footing in a new place—whether it’s a new city, a new job, or a new country. The light in Florence, Italy, has a way of making everything feel like a Renaissance painting—the golden hue on the stone, the steady rhythm of the Arno River, and the feeling that you are walking through a history much larger than yourself. I was there to give a presentation to a class of Gemology students. I was prepared to discuss color grading and refractive indices, but not to be outed as a language tutor . Feeling very much like a guest in a storied land, a hand shot up enthusiastically. "You’re the guy on the podcasts," the young woman said, her eyes bright with recognition. "You’re the one teaching us English." I laughed nervously. If you know my flat Midwestern accent, you know the irony here. I am hardly an Oxford professor. But later, as I wandered the cobblestone streets beneath the shadow of the Duomo, the humor faded into a powe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Practiced Hands: The 50-Year Warranty

What Doc Burch Taught Me About Staying Active. We talk a lot about "life hacks" these days, but most of them don’t have a very long shelf life. Usually, they’re forgotten by the next app update. But back in 1972, I received a piece of advice that came with a 50-year warranty. It’s the reason I’m still on my bike today, still chasing a golf ball around Carlsbad, and still—mostly—in one piece. The Kick That Changed Everything It started with a literal kick in the pants. A kid at school in Cuba, Illinois, was joking around and caught me just right. By the next morning, my lower back was screaming. My mom didn’t reach for the Tylenol; she reached for her car keys. "Let’s go see Doc Burch," she said. "He’ll fix you right up." Harry E. Burch, D.C., was a fixture in Lewistown. He’d graduated from Palmer College in ’59 and had been our family’s go-to for years. He was a man of practiced hands and steady eyes. After a quick exam and an X-ray, the mood in the room s...
Post a Comment
Read more

On the Fly–Taking Flight

In this special 500th episode,  On the Fly  is moving to a new home. Here’s why—and what’s staying the same. For a very long time (since April 2012),  On the Fly  has lived on  Blogger . Blogger has been a reliable host—dependable, quiet, and never complaining when I arrived late with another half-baked idea, a guitar riff, or a story that needed a little air. It faithfully archived my thoughts, my music, and more than a decade of curiosity. But the internet has changed. It’s louder now. Flashier. More insistent. Every thought is nudged to perform. Every sentence wants to be optimized, monetized, or interrupted by something that really wants your attention right this second. I’ve been craving the opposite. So today, On the Fly is moving to Substack . If you’ve been with me for a while, you know my quiet obsession: the A rt of Seeing . I’m interested in the moments we rush past—the Aversion Trap, the discipline hidden inside a guitarist’s daily practice, t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chasing 70

In this episode,  Chasing 70: A Respectful Negotiation with Gravity They say golf is a game of misses. If that’s true, my first round of the year at Rancho Carlsbad was a masterclass in missing efficiently . After a four-month hiatus—during which my golf clubs quietly evolved into a self-sustaining garage ecosystem—Lori and I returned to our local par-three proving ground. Rancho Carlsbad is a par-54, just 1,983 yards long. That sounds forgiving until it exposes every weakness you’ve been politely ignoring during the off-season. I finished with a 78. In most contexts, 78 is respectable. On a par-54, it means I spent a fair amount of time “getting my steps in.” But here’s the real motivation: I turn 70 this August. As a core principle of my Great Un-Working Lifestyle, I’m putting it in writing: I want to shoot my age by my birthday. The Bald-Headed Man Course Around here, we have a nickname for Rancho Carlsbad. We call it the Bald-Headed Man Course. First, because there are no woods...
Post a Comment
Read more