(1 Aug 1998) English/Nat
Some of the original astronauts gathered in Houston on Saturday to pay tribute to Alan Shepard - one of America's true adventurers.
They described their fellow spaceman as a patriot and true pioneer, who had helped restore the country's self-esteem, at a time it was losing the space race to the Soviets.
Shepard - the first American in space - died at the age of 74 of leukaemia late last month.
The elite of the American space programme - past and present - gathered in Houston to honour one of their own - and truly one of a kind.
Some of those same men who stood alongside Shepard in April 1959, hand-picked as the country's first astronauts, stood once again in tribute to their former colleague.
Former astronaut Alan Shepard died last month at the age of 74 from leukaemia.
But surviving comrades of N-A-S-A's heady early days were here to remind Americans that the spirit of his achievements in the U-S space programme live on.
They're an ageing group now in their seventies.
But their memories of those great early days in space, and of Alan Shepard, are vivid.
One of them recalled his role at a time when the Soviets were beating America in space.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Al brought us back. He brought us back because of his leadership in the Mercury programme. He brought us back because he carried the American questing spirit on his shoulders into the heavens. He brought us back because Al took that challenge from the Soviets not only as the patriot he was - Al took that personally."
SUPER CAPTION: Senator John Glenn, Democrat, Ohio
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We spent long days and nights getting ready to get M-R-3 ready to go. I was going to be the blockhouse communicator. And we were together on the communications system in the launch. And I'll never forget there was not a dry eye anywhere in the blockhouse when we launched."
SUPER CAPTION: Gordon Cooper, Mercury astronaut
N-A-S-A's current chief said Shepard's role as pioneer served as an inspiration for today's U-S space programme.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"When he lifted off he lifted our spirits and he inspired us to always explore the unknown and discover what's possible, to always think of the future, to always do our part.
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Goldin, N-A-S-A Chief Administrator
Shepard was the first American to soar atop a modified Redstone rocket in his Freedom-7 capsule and into space.
On May 5, 1961, his suborbital flight was the first manned launch of N-A-S-A's fledgling Mercury programme.
UPSOUND Shepard...."Oxygen go....all systems are go."
Shepard's flight did more than launch a man into space.
It was in effect the launch of America's manned space programme; the first precarious step to the moon and a signal to the Soviets that an all-out space race was now underway.
Beaten by the Russians to space, America badly wanted to prove it could match its cold war nemesis.
Shepard's 15-minute ride put America back in the race, boosting public morale.
It also put the cocky former fighter jock on the frontpage as the country's first space-age celebrity.
Even after he had been forced to take a back seat in the programme with an ear ailment that left him grounded, he roared back into space in 1971 atop a giant Saturn rocket as commander of Apollo 14.
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