Twenty-seven years ago today, on July 22, 1998 (May 29, 1998), Alan Shepherd, the first American astronaut, passed away. Alan Shepherd, the first American to go into space, died of illness in a hospital in a coastal town in California on the evening of July 22. He was 74 years old. According to a spokesperson for the hospital, Shepherd walked through his life quietly in his sleep. According to Shepherd's colleague, Senator John Glenn, a well-known astronaut who has retired and will return to space at an advanced age this year, Shepherd had been suffering from leukemia for a long time before his death. President Bill Clinton, speaking at the White House that day, called Shepard one of America's "greatest astronauts" and expressed the nation's gratitude for his "pioneering career". "His work will forever be an important part of American history, and he is one of the greatest heroes of modern America," he said. Shepard was born a banker on November 8, 1923, earned his degree at the Annapolis Naval Academy in 1944, and served on the destroyer USS Cogswell in the Pacific during World War II. On May 5, 1961, Shepard did an epoch-making event in the history of American aviation: he took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and flew the "Freedom 7 Mercury" spacecraft on a 15-minute orbit around the earth, five of which were spent in real space. The spacecraft took him 185 kilometers into space and then landed in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight was carried out 23 days after the first Soviet cosmonaut to enter space, Gagarin, went into space. Shepard said afterwards: "This is just the first step in the baby's toddler, and the purpose is to have bigger and better progress in the future." Eight years later, the American astronaut Armstrong confirmed his words. Armstrong became the world's first man to walk on the moon, proudly declaring that it was "one small step for man, one giant leap for man". But while space technology in the United States was advancing rapidly, Sheppard left the aviation industry for nearly a decade due to an inner ear disease that affected balance. It was not until 1971 that he finally landed on the moon as the flight commander of the Apollo 14 lunar manned lander. The flight also made him the only person to play golf on the moon. When he swung the ball out, the ball traveled through the thin lunar atmosphere much faster than it did on Earth. Of the experience, Sheppard told an interesting story: He went to his boss and said, "I want to play golf on the moon." His boss replied: "Shepard, you've been giving me trouble for 15 years," and refused his request. But Shepard finally got his wish. Shepard retired as a rear admiral in 1974. In 1994, he collaborated with a colleague to publish a book about his career in space. Shepard was one of seven Mercury astronauts originally designated by NASA in 1959 to take the United States into the space age. After his death, only four of the seven survived. They are: Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Walter Syrah. Glenn grew old and strong and decided to return to space in a spacecraft later this year. If all goes well, he will be the oldest person to go into space. Buzz Aldrin on the Moon