Lot 1751

Signed colour portrait photograph of Alan Barlett Shepard Jr., to the top left inscribed in pen 'To Rudolf Spoor/with regards/Alan Shepard'. The reverse in purple print 'NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Official Photograph/Color (portrait)/10 Sept '64, S-64-29932/Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas/ Astronaut --Alan Barlett Shepard, Jr.' In May 1961 Alan Shepard made the first crewed Project Mercury flight, Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7. His craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space, and the first space traveler to manually control the orientation of his craft. Shepard made his second space flight as Commander of Apollo 14 from January 31 to February 9, 1971. It was America's third successful lunar landing mission. Shepard piloted the Lunar Module Antares. He became the fifth and, at the age of 47, the oldest man to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. Rare! -24 x 18 cm'