According to the material, Alan Shepard was the...

• A. Was the first American to orbit the earth
• B. Was the first man to walk on the moon
• C. First American in space
• D. First person to fly a space shuttle

Answer: (A)

Alan Shepard’s achievement was being the first American in space, but his flight was suborbital, meaning it went up and back down without making a full orbit around Earth. The distinction matters because orbiting the Earth requires a spacecraft to complete a loop around the planet, which Shepard did not do. The first American to orbit Earth was John Glenn, which is why the statement about orbiting isn’t accurate for Shepard. The other options refer to later milestones: walking on the Moon was done by Neil Armstrong, and the Space Shuttle flew many years after Shepard’s flight with its own separate set of missions and astronauts.