Shepard Relaxes With Wife And Family

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 15

Shepard Relaxes With Wife And Family

(bl Z P.A -Reuter—Copyright) LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE (Virginia), May 9. Commander Alan Shepard, America’s first spaceman, relaxed at Langley today with his wife and family after his visit to Washington yesterday and an intensive examination by doctors and scientists, after his flight into space. He flew to Langley last night after a tumultuous 12-hour “welcome home” in Washington that included an official motor parade through the nation’s capital, the presentation of a gold “space medal” by President Kennedy and a nationally televised press conference.

With his wife. Louise, his mother, father and parents-in-law, the Navy commander spent last night at the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in quarters reserved for visiting officers and guests. He will go home later today. There, in the familiar surroundings of his own house, he will be able to escape for a little while from the stresses and strains of the glare of publicity that has shone on him since his flight into space on Friday. But it will be only a short rest for him. He is due to return here for further extensive medical checks and conferences almost immediately. Then he probably will fly back in a few days to Cape Canaveral. There, with the other six American astronauts, he will prepare for this country’s second human space-ride—-another “up and down” suborbital flight on top of a Redstone rocket, in about six weeks' time. He told his press conference in the State Department’s auditorium yesterday: "We plan to push ahead with the best possible speed to the successful completion of Project Mercury as we now know it.” Commander Shepard made probably as great an impact when he faced the press before the television cameras as he djd during his 15-minute flight. He dealt with the questions frankly, calmly and with humour, repeatedly emphasising that the United States’ man-in-space programme was a team effort, involving u :s fellow astronauts and hundreds of unknown technicians, scientists and engineers. f Admitting that the glare of publicity on the launch-

ing had presented problems, he declared with emphasis: “I will say that we feel very strongly that this particular flight was one which was certainly accomplished in the open. We had very few secrets about our plans.” Weightlessness He confirmed something that the Soviet cosmonaut, Major Yuri Gagarin, had revealed after his orbit of the earth, that the transition from powerful gravitational forces to weightlessness and back to the pull of high gravity was surprisingly smooth and gradual. Commander Shepard refused to be drawn into a discussion or opinion on Major Gagarin’s feat.

Discussing his five minutes of weightlessness, he said: “It is quite a pleasant sensation, particularly so after the’ acceleration of the booster ride We find we have no difficulties in manoeuvring ourselves, in controlling ourselves, and all in all really at this point certainly it has given us no difficulty at all ” Commander Shepard frankly admitted he felt some apprehension before the launching. “I think we went into this thing with our eyes open: but all of us realised the possibilities of partial success or failure The only exhilaration I felt was after the landing and recovery had been completed.”