Podcast - Freedom 7; 65th 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, 2026, marks the 65th anniversary of Freedom 7's launch. 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.
It's - "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.
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 NASA chose not to acknowledge was that it simply picked the astronaut sequence based on what it 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.
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This is Patrick Ball; thanks so much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode.
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