And as a national television audience watched the live broadcast in full color (earlier flights had been in black and white), Shepard said, “Houston, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine 6-iron on the bottom of it. or It took him a while, though, to convince Manned Spaceflight Center director Bob Gilruth, who was not keen on the idea. “That was the beginning of this idea in his mind,” Nenno says. Interest in the Apollo program among Americans had fallen since the triumph of the first Moon landing by Apollo 11 two years earlier. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images On the Apollo 14 moon mission, astronaut Alan Shepard pulled out two golf balls and a golf … The Moon Club, a specially crafted 6-iron clubhead, weighing 16.5 ounces, that was carried by Alan Shepard onboard the Apollo 14 mission to the moon, as seen at the USGA Golf … Saunders, who is working on a book called, “Apollo Remastered,” worked out through digital enhancing and stacking techniques of video footage that the first shot went 24 yards. We have a lot of artifacts that were used in the design of space hardware, and there are far fewer space objects that were flown in space, though we do have some.”. A video of Pinkerton Academy Headmaster Tim Powers in a spacesuit reenacting Pinkerton alumnus Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the moon in 1971 will tee up a … “Within the Hardens, the legacy is he gave him golf balls from the range that had ‘Property of Jack Harden’ on them,” Chamblee said. “I thought: What a neat place to whack a golf ball.” While stories have persisted that Shepard sprung this stunt on his own—or smuggled the club head and balls to the lunar surface, he had indeed gotten permission. Roger Catlin is a freelance writer in Washington D.C. who writes frequently about the arts for The Washington Post and other outlets. He wrote for many years at The Hartford Courant and writes mostly about TV on his blog rogercatlin.com. Advertising Notice “But you can’t grip the club with two hands when you’re wearing that suit.”, “He practiced a lot,” Nenno says. Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard and his crew brought back about 90 pounds of moon rocks on Feb. 6, 1971. The original is at the USGA Golf Museum and Libary in New Jersey, where it is one of the most popular exhibits. Shepard talked to the United States Golf Association (USGA) about those infamous shots. The moon. They said, ‘Mr. Out of this world: Alan Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago, Pebble Beach holding tournament without fans, celebs, buzz, Jordan Spieth shoots 61, raises volume at Phoenix Open, Golf’s biggest party goes on at subdued TPC Scottsdale, Viktor Hovland vaults into Farmers lead at wet Torrey Pines. “Being a golfer, I was intrigued,” Shepard told a NASA interviewer in February, 1998, five months before he died at 74. Naval Academy. Alan Shepard pulled out a six-iron and played golf on the Moon Dec 1, 2017 Martin Chalakoski Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. “The story is he put on his pressure suit and his oxygen tank and radios and all of the equipment and he’d practice when no one else was around, so that he felt confident he could pull off this shot.”, So when all went well with the Apollo mission, and just before re-entering the lunar module for takeoff, he pulled out his sporting gear from the tube sock where they were kept. “They took my launch conditions and said my ball would fly 4,600 yards and it would have just over a minute of hang time.”. On February 6, 1971, the Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard hit two golf balls across the lunar surface as one of the final acts of NASA's third crewed … Not quite. The USGA museum acquired the original following a personal request made by its most famous board member, Bing Crosby. Astronauts conducted a few of their own experiments in addition to all of the official experiments they’d carry out on the Moon, Muir-Harmony says. It was apropos he made Shepard’s 6-iron.”. Give a Gift. Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard … On Feb. 6, 1971, Alan Shepard took three swings to hit two golf balls a combined 250 yards or so. “I tried to take a practice swing while I was in quarantine before the mission,” Shepard said at a press conference at the 1974 U.S. Open when he was presenting the Moon Club to the golf museum. “Houston, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine 6-iron on the bottom of it,” Shepard said. Comandante de la misión Apolo 14, Shepard subió un paló de golf a escondidas, además de dos pelotas. The actual club is one of the prize exhibits at the USGA Museum in New Jersey, which came with one awkward moment. Cookie Policy California Do Not Sell My Info Dos años después, Alan Shepard no solo pisaría el satélite natural, sino que jugaría golf en él. The golf club used by NASA astronaut Alan Shepard to play golf on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1968. For that reason, he waited until the end of their lunar visit. Command module pilot Stuart A. Roosa had an environmentally minded mission—carrying 500 tree seedlings to lunar orbit and back to see the effect once planted back on Earth (most of the nearly 50-year old Moon trees survive and thrive throughout the United States including the grounds of the White House). “He was incessant tinkerer with equipment,” said Brandel Chamblee, a Golf Channel analyst and longtime friend of Harden’s son. “It resonates with people. Rather, it was part of a political strategy to build a global coalition. The conclusion: the first ball went 24 yards and the second 40 yards, according to the research released on Friday. All because of a one-handed swing by Shepard, still the only person to hit a golf ball on the moon. It also allowed Shepard to prepare for his trip by swinging the club. Since July 1969, Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon has represented the pinnacle of American space exploration and a grand scientific achievement. Fifty years after Alan Shepard made history by hitting two golf shots on the Moon with a makeshift 6-iron, writer Andy Saunders examines how far the balls actually traveled. Thu, 4 Feb 2021. Professional estimates originally determined that Shepard’s swing sent the ball flying for 200 yards before landing. “NASA really had to prove that they were still capable of landing humans on the Moon. “I think there was a benefit in trying to engage the general public in the mission and capture their attention,” Muir-Harmony says. We don’t expect to see it on the Moon. Walker, a space enthusiast with a skill and passion for astrophotography, worked with the USGA and Saunders as the Apollo 14 anniversary neared to see how far he could hit a 6-iron in one-sixth gravity of the moon. Al arribar a la Luna el 6 de febrero de 1971, una de las últimas actividades de Shepard fue… jugar al golf. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Former PGA champion Jimmy Walker hits a 6-iron about 200 yards on Earth. Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard hit two golf balls on the surface of the Moon on Feb. 6, 1971. They always changed the lie, the loft, the bounce. So while those experiments “with trees or ESP seems much more tied to counterculture trends at the time,” Muir-Harmony says, “Golfing on the Moon fits within early astronaut culture that you saw in the film The Right Stuff.”. “I thought: What a neat place to whack a golf … “50 years ago today Derry Native and Apollo 14 commander, Alan B. Shepard, famously hit two golf balls on the surface of the Moon on February 6, 1971! After being sidelined for years by an inner ear problem he became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as Apollo 14 commander. Left behind were two golf balls that Shepard, who later described the moon’s surface as “one big sand trap,” hit with a makeshift 6-iron to become a footnote in history. Golf Association. Harden managed to attach the head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron to a collapsible tool used to collect lunar samples. Privacy Statement Shepard waited until the end of the mission before he surprised American viewers and all but a few at NASA who did not know what Shepard had up his sleeve — or in this case, up his socks. I want to wait until the very end of the mission, stand in front of the television camera, whack these golf balls with this makeshift club, fold it up, stick it in my pocket, climb up the ladder, and close the door, and we’ve gone.”. Shepard made the club from a Wilson six-iron head and a lunar sample scoop handle. Still, it’s what most people remember about Apollo 14, half a century later. “It was extraordinarily expensive, over $25 billion at the time, which was a huge percentage of the federal budget, and there was a lot of critique about the expense of the program.” They were especially worried after the Apollo 13 mission the year before that aborted its lunar landing after an oxygen tank exploded. Astronaut Alan Shepard famously took a golf … 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. Jack Seddon. But he may have gotten a bigger kick with one of his last acts in space 50 years ago—whacking a golf ball on the Moon. Legendary astronaut Alan Shepard was born on November 18, 1923, in East Derry, New Hampshire. But the third swing connected. Alan Shepard, who was both an astronaut and a golf lover, said he got the idea while training for his Apollo 14 mission. On February 6, 1971, astronaut and golfer Alan Shepard turned the Apollo 14 landing site into a driving range. On a visit to Houston’s NASA headquarters in 1970, Hope carried his ever-present driver—and used it for balance when Shepard led him to a moon gravitational display. “One of the things I like about this object is that it’s a bit surprising. Both events mark milestone anniversaries this year—his 15-minute Freedom 7 suborbital launch as a Mercury astronaut occurred 60 years ago this May 5. Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard … And for Shepard—at the time the oldest man on a Moon mission at 47 and the earliest born (in 1923), golfing certainly reflected his interests. Alan Shepard earned his place in history as the first American in space. “He was known for saying miles and miles,” Walker said. Terms of Use 50 years ago astronaut Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon which he claimed travelled "miles and miles", but now we know just how far it really went. The third he later referred to as a shank. But Shepard explained he’d bring the modified Wilson Staff 6-iron club head and two balls in a tube sock “at no expense to the taxpayer.” And he promised not to even try it if anything on the mission went wrong. The shots did come down on the moon. Gene Sarazen put the Masters on the map by holing a 235-yard shot for an albatross in the final round of his 1935 victory. “He also thought the golf shot would be a great opportunity to demonstrate gravitational and atmospheric differences between the Earth and the Moon, using a well understood activity that hadn’t been done before.”. What stands out all these years later is Shepard even thinking about taking a golf club to the moon and back. Alan Shepard, the moon club and first golf swing on the moon Alongside Bob Jones’ putter Calamity Jane II and Ben Hogan’s 1-Iron, “I would say the Moon Club is our other most famous item,” says Victoria Nenno, senior historian at the U.S. But it helps to tell the story of the astronauts and how playful they were, and of the astronaut culture at that time,” says Muir-Harmony, author of Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo. Which makes for some Hollywood symmetry, since Shepard got the idea of swinging a club on the Moon from Crosby’s pal and longtime co-star Bob Hope. Shepard, that’s government property.’ We had a replica commissioned and gave it to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.”. Out of this world: Alan Shepard put golf on…, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Submit to Stumbleupon (Opens in new window). “We used to say it was the longest show in the history of the world because it hasn’t come down yet,” said renowned British golf … The second ball went 40 yards. That also would be a conventional 6-iron while wearing golf shoes and a sweater vest. “We used to say it was the longest shot in the history of the world because it hasn’t come down yet,” famed golf instructor Butch Harmon said with a laugh. Kudos to Shepard for being the first person to golf … He had even practiced in his spacesuit in a bunker in Houston when no one was around. The golf balls, for instance, remain on the Moon. “Absolutely no way,” Shepard recalled the initial response. “That looked like a slice to me, Al,” capsule communicator Fred Haise added from Houston. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Fifty years later, it remains the most impressive bunker shot in the history of golf, mainly because of the location. Chamblee and Harmon unlocked the mystery this week, and it came with a twist. Smithsonian Institution, (Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photographs via NASA, J. D. Cuban / Allsport and Newspapers.com). It was a brash idea and a terrible swing—the inflated pressure of the space suit made it so stiff he could only swing with one hand. Fifty years later, it remains the most impressive bunker shot in the history of golf, mainly because of the location. Yet, as Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony argues in Operation Moonglow, its primary purpose wasn't advancing science. “Golf was brought to an entirely new frontier,” says Nenno, “and now it’s forever entwined with the history of space exploration and scientific exploration.”. The first he shanked into a crater. With the Moon’s one-sixth gravity, and no atmosphere, there was no drag, hook or slice. And it also makes clear that this was a human space flight mission, not a robotic mission.”, Also, it’s not unusual to have a replica in the Air and Space Museum, she adds. “He donates it at a ceremony at the 1974 U.S. Open,” Trostel said. The story is here. Convincing his superiors took some doing. “NASA called him later and said it was looking at the club for the Smithsonian. “The Moon is one big sand trap and the dust is very fine,” Shepard explained in 1974.
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