Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Space Flight . ... Image credit: NASA) . ... Well, the flight made Alan Shepard the first American in space! ... In 1959 he was among 110 test pilots invited by the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to volunteer for the first manned space flight program. ... After successful corrective surgery Shepard was ready to begin training for the Apollo program which proved to be a lot more intense than the Mercury program. ...