Thursday, February 18, 2021

NASA astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr hit two golf balls while on the Moon in 1971… but where did they go? The answer has been revealed for Apollo 14’s 50th anniversary, thanks to 21st century tech.

Clearly, astronauts are hard to control.

Commander Shepard reportedly smuggled a specially-designed golf club into orbit. It comprised “a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron head” which could be attached to a “collapsible tool” or scooper intended for collecting rock samples”. 

The head traveled to the Moon in a sock. Once Shepard assembled his club, it wasn’t exactly plain sailing. 2 balls received a low gravity whack.

Accounts state he needed 3 swings to hit the first shot. It’s been known for a while that this ball went into a crater. Down in Mission Control, Fred Haise famously quipped: “Looked like a slice to me Al.”

The second was a breeze – not that the Moon has a breeze. However its destination remained a mystery. BBC Sport notes, “there was no ball-tracking technology” half a century ago.

Conditions on the Moon would have created “perfect parabolic” flight for the ball writes Saunders for Golf Journal (republished on the USGA website). That said, low gravity meant the club didn’t swing as it should.

And Shepard had trouble swinging in the first place. A bulky spacesuit affected the Commander’s technique, putting it mildly.

Shepard was left with no option but to wield the club with one hand. Plus the restrictive visor wasn’t player friendly.

Shepard had a sense of humor about the whole deal, claiming his shot carried the ball over of a number of miles. Saunders says this was “a light-hearted exaggeration; something highly competitive astronauts and golfers are prone to.”

Yep, these are pathetic distances, especially for very low gravity.


In 2011 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the area with an eager lens. Some stunningly clear images were produced.


Apparently, Shepard never revealed the brand of golf ball, foolishly, as he could have turned such an endorsement into cold, hard cash.

Via the always good American Digest



3 comments:

  1. Complete and utter garbage. NASA hasn't managed to offer a pic of anything that could vaguely prove their claims of visiting the moon. Now they claim they have found pics of a couple of golf balls??? I'd also bet plenty that a golf ball left on the moon, basking in radiation and with temperatures ranging from -300 to +300 daily would disintegrate in months, let alone 50 years.

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  2. Thank you, Voltara. I agree entirely. I used to believe this actually happened. Thanks to the internet and people explaining the impossible I changed my tune. Have you seen the high res photos of the lunar landing module posted by NASA? I've hung out in tree forts built better than this heap of crap.

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    1. Hey Tom, yeah, me too. I really WANTED to believe that they had been to the moon, but as you say, the facts are clear. Have you read Dave McGowan's "wagging the Moondoggie"? probably the best, easy to read summary, along with the rest of Dave's superb examinations of the establishment's big lies:

      https://centerforaninformedamerica.com/moondoggie/

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