Talk:Alan Shepard

Criticism

I think the account of Apollo 14 should include criticism of Shepard by scientists. According to the FA article on the mission, its geological results were disappointing because Shepard refused to take the training seriously. Dudley Miles (talk) 13:09, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

I think Wehwalt wrote that article. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 05:39, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

I think the Apollo 14 article provides a nuanced view of things. He wasn't enthusiastic about geology but he did have a lot on his plate after a decade on the ground. The extent to which that contributed to the inability to reach the rim of Cone Crater is left to the reader. Possibly something could be said here.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:11, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Wehwalt. The Apollo 14 article covers activities on the Moon very well, and I decided to only summarise here. That may have resulted in a less balanced view. My sources indicate that the ornery "icy commander" was completely absent during this period, and that he trained hard for Apollo 14. Like most astronauts he had little interest in geology, but this was not what kept him from reaching the rim of the Cone Crater. Despite his age, his stamina was rated the highest of any moon walker by the NASA doctors. My understanding is that the decision to turn back was dictated by concerns about having sufficient oxygen to get back to the LM. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:17, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

I was thinking about the comment about the geological training: "The effectiveness of the training was limited by a lack of enthusiasm shown by Shepard, which set the tone for Mitchell." Also geologist Lee Silver: "The Apollo 14 crews did not have the right attitude, did not learn enough about their mission, had the burden of not having the best possible preflight photography, and they weren't ready." The complaints were not about the failure to reach Cone Crater (which according to the article was due to exhaustion) but about the samples from the distance they did reach. Articles should cover criticisms, otherwise they are unbalanced. Dudley Miles (talk) 22:28, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Climbing Cone Ridge - Where Are We?: 33:23:23 Haise: And, Ed and Al, we've already eaten in our 30-minute extension and we're past that now. I think we'd better proceed with the sampling and continue with the EVA.

Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "If we'd gotten to the point where we'd been willing to do away with the rest of the traverse (that is, do their work at the Cone rim and then proceed directly back to the LM without stopping), we could have made the rim all right. But I personally wasn't willing to do that. I felt that gathering more samples was the better of the two choices. We looked at the map again today and described two boulder fields that indicate that we were probably within 150 to 300 feet - depending on these two boulder fields - of the rim and still were not able to see it. That was a pretty good-sized lunar feature, to be that close to the top of the thing and not see it. That is just part of the navigation problem."

Nothing about exhaustion, just time. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:45, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

That is not what the Apollo 14 article says but it is beside the point. Shepard was not criticised for failing to reach the rim but because his lack of enthusiasm for geological training adversely affected their ability to choose and correctly label the best geological specimens. The article should cover this point. Dudley Miles (talk) 11:13, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Merger proposal

@Hawkeye7: Any objection to merging Shepard's Prayer into Alan Shepard (leaving it as a redirect)? Currently just 2 sentences and seems unlikely to be expanded. Random fixer upper (talk) 19:41, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

No objection. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:09, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

I support the merging, why has this not been done yet? 2.38.150.183 (talk) 11:10, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Ok, thanks -- added it to the 'In popular culture' section and changed the Shepard's Prayer page back to a redirect. Random fixer upper (talk) 01:28, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

Lists children’s as 2 but names 3 daughters??

Question # of children. 2605:59C0:10F6:FB10:292A:B176:3938:8F78 (talk) 21:10, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

Try reading the article. Following the death of Louise's sister in 1956, they raised her five-year-old niece, Judith Williams—whom they renamed Alice to avoid confusion with Julie—as their own, although they never adopted her. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:01, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

Ménière’s disease

The article notes that he was cured by surgery (a misconception spread by Andrew Chaikin’s Man on the Moon), but the clinical outcomes for surgical interventions are poor and none of them seems to have shown efficacy in randomised controlled trials. However, spontaneous remission isn’t particularly unusual, generally occurs around the approximate timeframe between his diagnosis and recovery. It would seem an implausible coincidence were it not for the fact that this was exactly when one would expect him to be likely to recover and the motivation and access to medical resources he had as part of the astronaut corps probably meant that he had more ability to improve his general health over the period of his illness than almost anyone on earth. It’s a complex and poorly understood inflammatory disorder with multiple likely causes, but becoming much more healthy through major lifestyle changes seems more likely to have helped than an operation which probably only induced the placebo effect. 80.47.92.12 (talk) 08:11, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

The article notes that "there was no known cure, but in about 20 percent of cases the condition goes away by itself." The surgery took place, and Shepherd was restored to flight status, but the article carefully avoids saying that he was cured by the surgery. It also notes that he quit smoking and adopted Glenn's habit of taking a morning jog, which was quite uncommon in the 1960s. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:53, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Affairs

It was well known that he was one of the astronauts involved with multiple women, but funny how this and other articles on other astronauts tend to gloss over those facts. Of course there has to be valid sources for those to make it on Wiki, but.... :) 140.108.1.12 (talk) 19:17, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

It is in the article. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:46, 18 August 2025 (UTC)