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{
    "localId": "193652",
    "label": "Alan Shepard Oral History Interview",
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{
    "id": "193652",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193652",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Alan Shepard Oral History Interview",
    "description": "Interview with Alan Shepard for the John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program by Walter Sohier, General Counsel, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. June 12, 1964 Houston, Texas",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193652",
    "creators": [
        "Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923-1998"
    ],
    "collections": [
        "John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program",
        "John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program: John F. Kennedy Oral Histories."
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (10/01/1958 - )",
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963",
        "Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923-1998",
        "Interviews",
        "Space programs",
        "Astronauts"
    ],
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    "hasTranscription": false
}

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            "day": 12,
            "logicalDate": "1964-06-12",
            "month": 6,
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{
    "seq": 3,
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    "ocrText": "Interview with Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.\n3\nWilliams from the Space Task Group, as we were then called;\nthe President; Vice President Johnson; the heads of the\nSenate and House Space Committees- at that time I believe\nit was Senator [Robert S.] Kerr and Congressman [Overton]\nBrooks; and Congressman [Joseph W., Jr.] Martin. All in\nall, I'd say there were possibly 20 to 25 people in the\nroom.\nMr. Sohier: Did you sit down, or were you sort of milling\naround-- what kind of a setup was it?\nCommander Shepard: There was a general milling around when\nwe first came into the room. The Press was in there at that\ntime, they took their pictures and then they left, and the\nroom was closed. We sat down; the seven of us sat on two\nopposing sofas, the President sat in his rocking chair at\nthe head of the opening between these two sofas, and the\nother Congressional leaders were sort of sitting around\nbehind him and behind us.\nThe one singular point I remember quite strongly about that\nincident really started about a month before my flight when\na subcommittee of the President's Scientific Advisory\nCommittee (a subcommittee which was composed primarily of\nmedical people) came to Langley Field and we engaged in a\nseries of discussions which lasted the better part of a day.\nThey indicated great trepidation about the upcoming flight;\nand they indicated a rather surprising lack of confidence in\nthe ability of man to perform successfully under a weight-\nless condition, even for short periods of time, also to\nperform successfully under conditions of acceleration during\nthe launch and reentry.\nI'm not sure what recommendations this subcommittee made to\nthe President as a result of the flight, but I assume we\nwere able to convince them that we could in fact go ahead\nand operate under this environment.\nSo this became the subject of conversation which I recall\nmost vividly on that occasion in the President's office,"
}