Today in Technology History
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February 6
In one of the humorous moments of the manned missions to the Moon, it was 32 years ago that an American astronaut hit a golf ball into a lunar crater.
Alan Shepard swinging his golf club on the Moon.
Click to enlarge.
Alan Shepard (1923-1998) was the first American sent into space, back in 1961. A decade later, he went up to space a second time for the Apollo 14 mission, the third manned lunar landing mission. During that two-day stay on the Moon, Shepard and fellow astronaut Edgar Mitchell (born 1930) spent more than nine hours walking on the lunar surface in their space suits -- a record still unsurpassed.
Toward the end of the second day of extra-vehicular activity, on February 6, 1971, Shepard took out a detachable golf club head, which he had smuggled aboard. He attached the head to one end of a tool he was using for collecting lunar samples. He then turned to the TV camera...
Shepard: Houston, while you're looking that up, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down. Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here. [He swings and misses.]
Mitchell: You got more dirt than ball that time.
Shepard: Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again. [This time, he taps the ball and it only moves a few feet. After a pause he tries one last time.] Here we go. Straight as a die; one more. [He swings and connects with the ball.] Miles and miles and miles.
Shepard was exaggerating with his "miles and miles and miles." A while later, astronaut Mitchell made a makeshift javelin out of one of their equipment poles. The javelin actually landed in the same crater as Shepard's golf ball.
Upon returning to the Earth, Shepard donated the six iron to the U.S. Golf Association, which keeps it on display at its Hall of Fame. The golf ball and "javelin" are still on the Moon.
Related links:
Click here to read a transcript of the Apollo 14 crew's second day of extra-vehicular activity, including their golf swings and javelin toss.
To see video of the golf shot, visit this page.
Visit these pages to read biographies of Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell.
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