Astronaut Alan Shepard on the moon.
1971: Astronaut Alan Shepard uses a 6-iron to hit a golf ball into a lunar crater.
Shepard, who 10 years before became the first American in space, commanded the Apollo 14 mission, the third manned mission to perform a lunar landing. Coming on the heels of Apollo 13's spectacular failure, Shepard and his crew overcame a few early glitches to enjoy a badly needed success.
All the major objectives established for Apollo 14 were achieved, although Shepard and fellow astronaut Edgar Mitchell failed to reach the rim of a 1,000-foot-wide crater, owing to the difficulty of the terrain. Nevertheless, the Apollo 14 mission will be remembered for that iconic moment when Shepard dropped a golf ball onto the powdery lunar surface and, using an improvised golf club (a 6-iron club head attached to the handle of a collecting tool), hacked away like the worst duffer on ... well, the moon.
Not to be outdone, Mitchell fashioned a javelin out of an equipment pole and heaved it as far as the limitations of his spacesuit would let him. Like Shepard's par-100,000 shot, it was memorable for its symbolism rather than its grace.
Shepard's antics, coming toward the end of his second moonwalk, were filmed and beamed back to Earth.
