Man Who Walked On Moon Twice Shares Troubling Secret

In 1959, NASA chose seven men to train for space exploration. It was an absolute honor to participate in such an elite task force, but Alan Shepard was the only one who actually succeeded in making it all the way to the moon. However while it may seem glamorous, Shepard’s journey was rife with trauma. After years of silence, he’s finally coming clean about the dark experiences he underwent—and the details are truly shocking.

Only The Best Wanted

Anyone who was alive during the late '60s remembers how intense the Apollo 11 launch was. The world watched in awe as three American astronauts — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins — piloted the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle with success. But this foray into space wouldn't have been possible without Alan Shepard.

The Special Seven

See, the 1969 Apollo 11 flight wouldn't have gotten off the ground if not for a dedicated group of seven astronauts chosen by NASA in 1959. Each individual had no idea what to expect, considering NASA was breaking into completely new territory, but they were all thrilled at the chance to participate.

Shepard Moves To NASA

One of the most talented and respected astronauts in the group was a man named Alan Shepard. During World War II, Shepard worked aboard a Navy vessel, and after the war ended he became a test pilot. His talents eventually brought him to NASA in 1959 as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts.

Freedom At Last

Shepard and his crew were all put through grueling physical and mental challenges to prove they were fit for space travel. Finally, after working tirelessly for two years, Shepard took control of a spacecraft he named Freedom 7 on the very first Project Mercury flight. He was the first American to venture into the vast unknown.

Not Without Danger

Freedom 7 managed to enter into space on May 5, 1961, but Shepard was unable to achieve orbit around Earth. However, he did fly 116 miles high before coming back down. The trip was nothing short of exhilarating for both the astronaut and the anxious engineers watching at NASA, but everyone was still well aware of the dangers space travel posed.

Adding To The Pressure

For one thing, if something went awry, the only help an astronaut had was the vocal instructions from the control center; the bulk of the problem solving was on the astronaut's shoulders. Additional pressures were added to Alan's journey, too. Troubles he couldn't anticipate.

Thoughts from the Stars

He once jokingly quipped, “It is a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.” He trusted his engineers, but he was still uneasy with the experience — especially given what happened the day before launch.

Losing Victor

To add even more stress to Shepard's journey, a Navy balloonist named Victor Prather (below) died one day before Freedom 7 took off when his pressure suit — identical to Shepard's — filled with water and he drowned. Fortunately, Shepard didn't suffer the same fate. Though he did face more sobering thoughts.

Not Infinite

“I realized up there that our planet is not infinite," Commander Shepard recalled. "It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to get together and live on this planet. We look pretty vulnerable in the darkness of space.” 

Spaceflight Was Possible

After landing in the ocean near the Bahamas, Shepard was pulled to safety, and a group of NASA doctors put the astronaut through an intensely thorough checkup once he returned to Space Center Houston. They checked his vital signs, balance, and mental coordination. As it turned out, Shepard was completely healthy — this had lasting ramifications.

Tragedy Strikes

Shepard was scheduled to then man the next two flights into space, with the third and final one being an Apollo mission to physically land on the moon. To say Shepard was excited was an understatement; this was an achievement he'd dreamed about for years. However, a physical issue tragically struck, and Shepard soon found himself off the piloting list.

Sitting By Helplessly

Shepard was hit with Ménière's disease, an inner-ear disorder that caused sporadic moments of nausea and extreme dizziness. Naturally, NASA couldn't send someone prone to those side effects into space, so Shepard was forced to accept a desk job, which he loathed. For nearly six years, he frustratingly sat by and watched other astronauts take flight. However, in 1968, much-needed relief came.

Back To The Grind

Shepard underwent an experimental surgery to fix the inner-ear ailment, and it worked! Finally, after impatiently waiting behind a desk for over half a decade Shepard was ready for space travel again. Because of his status at NASA, he managed to snag an immediate flight assignment and avoid the long wait facing other astronauts. On February 15, 1971, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission.

The Point of the Mission

That's because, two years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin so famously took a giant leap for mankind, NASA concluded two lunar landings weren't enough. Organization executives wanted a third, so they cooked up the Apollo 14 mission. The mission saw Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell suit up for what would be a nine-day jaunt to the moon.

3...2...1...

NASA scheduled the launch for October 1970, but, after the failure of the Apollo 13 mission, delayed it four months. So, it was January 31, 1971, when these three finally took off from the Kennedy Space Center.

Unexpected Discoveries

The astronauts hoped, of course, that their scientific agenda up in space would change the way humanity thought about physics. About life. They didn't know, however, that they'd make a discovery destined to shake the scientific community years later.

Mission Accomplished

At 47 years of age, Shepard became the fifth and oldest person to traverse the moon’s landscape. He was joined by crewmates Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell in the Apollo Lunar Module named Antares, and all three men made it to the moon! Roosa stayed in the crew capsule while Shepard and Mitchell took two moonwalks and collected over 100 pounds of rocks to bring back home. Some of these samples seemed troublingly like minerals found on Earth – a fact that certain individuals would no doubt have liked to have kept classified – and they would go on to reshape theories about the Earth’s development, billions of years ago.

Leaving His Mark

Shepard also wanted to leave his own unique mark on the adventure, so he took his love of sports up into orbit. He harnessed his inner Jack Nicklaus and cranked two golf balls off the moon's surface! With this, Shepard also carved out a new image of astronauts to the world.

Bringing The "Cool" Factor

Before Shepard's Apollo 14 journey, the typical idea of an astronaut was someone mild-mannered and conservative. However, the corvette-loving, golf-ball whacking personality that Shepard brought to NASA turned the tables on everyone's thoughts, and people loved him for it. He brought a previously unseen level of "cool" to the space program.

Landing

And then, nine days after takeoff, on February 9, the Apollo 14 crew landed safely in the Pacific Ocean. Back on Earth, they delivered their findings to NASA, where scientists eagerly went to work. They didn't realize how important their findings were.

One Big Rock

This particular piece of space rock was officially called 14321, but it is more commonly known as Big Bertha. And we can see just how it picked up this moniker if we consider its size. The stone was much larger than any other collected during this mission – weighing in at almost 20 pounds.

A Strange History

Of course, Shepard recognized that Big Bertha was an important specimen all those years ago, but it wouldn’t be until nearly half a century later that all its secrets were finally revealed. A piece of research published 48 years down the line put forth an incredible theory. Big Bertha, it seems, has an even stranger origin story than anyone could have predicted.

Apollo 14

Shepard and Mitchell had been a part of the Apollo 14 mission, which was the third undertaking to touch down upon the Moon. And throughout its duration, crew members from Apollo 14 walked along the surface of the natural satellite on two separate occasions.

A Three Man Team

The Apollo 14 mission’s leader was Shepard (the first American to reach space, but not the moon) with Mitchell and Stuart Roosa making up the rest of the three-man team. The trio left Earth on the final day of January 1971 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. February 1971 would prove to be the strangest month in any of their lives.

Fra Mauro

The Apollo 14 mission was focused on an area of the Moon called Fra Mauro. This is a crater which took its name from an Italian monk and cartographer who lived during the 1400s. Furthermore, the bowl isn’t exactly insignificant in size; it has a diameter measuring up at around 50 miles. Soon, the astronauts would see it for themselves.

Out Exploring

Shepard and his crew reached the Moon five days after launch and subsequently touched down on its surface. Then, two of the team members stepped out to explore after around five hours of waiting. This pair consisted of Shepard and Mitchell – with Roosa staying aboard their spacecraft.

Raising The Flag

Shepard and Mitchell raised an American flag upon the ground during their first excursion on the Moon. This was achieved by Mitchell beating a pole into the lunar surface. The pair also set up a number of high-tech instruments which would collect information for scientists to then pore over.

Cone Crater

Meanwhile, Shepard and Mitchell traveled around quite a bit on their second excursion onto the Moon’s surface. According to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the pair covered almost 2 miles of territory over 4 hours and 20 minutes. This time, however, they were exploring a place known as Cone Crater.

Bringing Back Samples

During their mission, the Apollo 14 crew managed to retrieve some samples of various materials found on the Moon. Furthermore, they conducted no less than ten experiments while they were there. Plus, the team managed to snap some amazing photographs – ultimately allowing all of us on Earth to see what it looks like up there.

Back Down To Earth

The Apollo 14 team subsequently fired off from the Moon on February 6. They then set their sights on Earth once again and arrived back after three days – drifting down from the sky and into the Pacific Ocean. Their landing was thankfully a safe one, though they were slightly off target.

Bringing Back Souvenirs

Of course, the three astronauts hadn’t returned to Earth without anything to show for it. They’d actually managed to bring back more than 90 pounds of lunar material to our planet. Unsurprisingly to scientists, most of these rocks were breccias, which are stones made up of older fragmented materials.

Fused Fragments

You see, the Moon’s surface has been exposed to numerous impacts over time. Astronomical objects have frequently smashed into the natural satellite – breaking down many rocks in the process. Then, the pressure and high temperatures causes the fragments to fuse together and form breccias.

Complex Stones

In some instances, the individual pieces of stone that make up breccias can also be defined as breccias in their own right. If we bear this in mind, we can see how complex these stones can be, and it illustrates just how much information they can potentially reveal to scientists.

Strange Specimens

However, the Apollo 14 astronauts also brought some samples of basalt back to Earth. This rock has a dark color and is formed after molten magma cools and hardens. Furthermore, these particular specimens retrieved from the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission are thought to be at least four billion years old, according to the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

One Special Boulder

But there was a particularly special boulder among the bounty of stones brought to Earth by the Apollo 14 crew. This was, of course, Big Bertha, which was noted for the first time by Shepard on February 6. Immediately, the astronaut seemed to realize that this stone was important.

Big Bertha

Shepard subsequently reported Big Bertha to his colleagues back on Earth after setting eyes upon it. NASA notes that he said, “There’s a football-size rock, Houston, coming out of this area, which will not be bagged. It appears to be the prevalent rock of the boulders of the area. Got it?”

How Do We Get It Back?

The stone was sizable and heavy – weighing in at almost 20 pounds. It was, therefore, something of a struggle for Shepard and Mitchell to bring it on board their spacecraft. After all, their space suits wouldn’t exactly have been the most flexible of outfits. But the pair managed to do it anyway.

The Big Picture

However, it was quite some time before a study emerged which really painted a picture of Big Bertha’s significance. This finally happened, though, in 2019 – some 48 years after the rock was first discovered by Shepard. But the wait may well have been worth it for any scientists concerned with the study of the Moon.

Unusual Features

This specific project was headed up by two figures associated with the Swedish Museum of Natural History – professor Alexander Nemchin and Jeremy Bellucci. Put simply, the pair analyzed Big Bertha and found that the rock had a number of unusual features.

Rare Materials

It appears that Big Bertha had formed in circumstances that you wouldn’t have generally expected to find up on the Moon. Moreover, its components – made up of feldspar, zircon and quartz – are said to be rare on the natural satellite. So, what exactly are the implications of these strange details?

The Right Conditions

Well, a pair of theories quickly come into focus when we consider the strange features of Big Bertha. According to NASA, the first suggests that the Moon may have been in an unexpected state when the boulder came into being. If conditions on the Moon were once different to what they are now, then perhaps that’s why Big Bertha formed the way that it did.

Crash Course

The second theory, however, suggests that Big Bertha wasn’t actually formed on the Moon at all. This line of thinking argues that it was created somewhere else entirely and somehow sent soaring into space, where it ultimately crashed into the Moon. But where could the rock have developed? Well, the primary suspect is Earth.

Provocative Conclusions

It might be difficult to imagine that Big Bertha formed on Earth, but the theory could actually ring true. For instance, a space chemistry expert at Florida State University called Munir Humayun seems to believe that it’s possible. The researcher told Science in 2019, “It’s a very provocative conclusion, but it could be right.”

An Extraordinary Find

David Kring is a moon geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in the Texan city of Houston. He is also the author of the Big Bertha research, which was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters in January 2019. According to Science, Kring said, “It is an extraordinary find that helps paint a better picture of early Earth and the bombardment that modified our planet during the dawn of life.”

How Did It Get There?

But how did a rock from Earth end up on the Moon? Well, boulders from the latter often get fired towards our planet, and the reverse is also likely. As William Bottke from Colorado’s Southwest Research Institute put it to New Scientist, “Earth’s been hit by a lot of very big things. And it’s conceivable that some of those impacts have ejected material far enough away that it’s been able to escape the clutches of Earth and make it to the Moon.”

Stranger And Stranger

So, it seems very likely that Big Bertha was formed on Earth. The specific conditions required to create the stone would only have been possible at about 100 miles beneath the Moon’s surface, Bellucci claimed in the report. From this great depth, it’s extremely unlikely that a rock would have been dug up and fired to Earth after an impact.

Liquid Hot Magma

And there’s more evidence to suggest that Big Bertha is a rock deriving from the Earth. It’s been claimed that the boulder actually bears a striking similarity to rocks you’d find being created by magma on our planet. So, it seems that the rock was actually brought back to its birthplace by the Apollo 14 team.

4 Billion Years Old

As we mentioned earlier, Big Bertha is believed to be at least 4 billion years old – making it one of the oldest rocks ever found on Earth. And the discovery could also potentially reveal more about the state of our planet’s earlier days. After all, Earth is thought to have come together only 500 million years before this.

Revealing The Truth

It might seem amazing that a boulder found on the Moon could actually reveal more about the Earth than rocks found here in the first place. But it actually makes sense when you think about it. You see, conditions on the Moon are much more stable than on Earth, and so rocks have a better chance of surviving through the ages.

Mixed Up

In fact, it’s possible that the Moon is the best candidate for finding materials that can tell us more about the early Earth. Of course, rocks from our planet found on the natural satellite are few and far between. But over time they would have been mixed throughout the Moon’s own materials, and so it may be comparatively easy to find them.

Not The Oldest

Big Bertha is of course a fascinating discovery, but it isn’t actually the oldest formation ever discovered. That honor goes to some crystalized zircon samples which were uncovered in the west of Australia. These minerals are thought to be about 4.4 billion years old, which means they formed just 150 millions years after the planet itself.

The discovery in Australia implies that the Earth’s crust was created long before scientists had ever realized before. One of the people involved in a study focused on these zircon crystals which was reported in Nature Geoscience elaborated on this idea in a statement. In professor John Valley’s words, “That age is 300 million years older than the oldest previously dated age [of other crystals], and only 100 million years after the magma ocean.”

Taking Shape

The zircon samples discovered in the western regions of Australia were apparently once part of a larger boulder. Over time, then, they were modified into new shapes and forms. And as David Kring himself has suggested, this larger stone and its zircons would have been created during the same period of time.

Like Earth Rocks

Kring told Science, “We’re sure it’s a complete rock.” In fact, it’s thought to be roughly as advanced in age as any other rock found here on our planet. The publication added that these other aged stones have been found in parts of the world such as Greenland and Canada.

A Possible Hypothesis

But in Big Bertha’s case, many scientists believe it was created on Earth and sent crashing into the Moon. Though William Bottke is skeptical, telling New Scientist, “What they’ve pointed out is an interesting inconsistency and they’ve pointed out a possible hypothesis. And now we get to figure out whether it holds water or not.”

Lunar Samples

Of course, more lunar samples will need to be collected before we can say for sure that Big Bertha came from Earth. If rocks are discovered on the Moon that are made up of components not usually associated with the natural satellite, then we may have an answer. It would suggest, after all, that they came from our planet.

Changing The Timeline

The scientific implications could be great if we can confirm that Big Bertha is indeed from our planet. It would support the theory that Earth has at some point in its history been smashed by astronomical objects so hard that its own rocks were fired into space. It also suggests that the Earth’s continents were forming before it was previously thought.

Revealing New Secrets

According to Kring, it’s likely that researchers will now seek to analyze all the rocks that have been brought back to Earth from the Moon. Only a small amount of these fragments have apparently ever been investigated appropriately. So, who knows what secrets about the early planet they might shed light on?

A Bright Future

The future of this particular method of scientific investigation is quite bright, it would seem. At least, that’s how Kring sees it. As he put it to Science, “I think we are going to get a little library of fragments of the early Earth emerging in the next few years.”