ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: We all remember a man the president calls a hero: the first U.S. astronaut in space. Alan Shepard died in his sleep he had been battling leukemia.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: It was July 20, 1969 when astronauts first walked on the moon -- Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin. And Alan Shepard died, the news came out the day after the 29th anniversary of that significant event. Alan Shepard has the distinction of being the only one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts to make it to the moon. I would use the term hero for somebody like Alan Shepard. He was a genuine, dyed-in- the-wool American hero who was willing to risk everything for a great, great adventure, and on behalf of all of his country.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: All the other astronauts who knew him, they admired Al Shepard. They admired him for his toughness, they admired him for his resilience. But, you know, beneath that veneer -- that veneer of toughness that Shepard had, he had a heart of gold.</s>O'BRIEN: Alan Shepard represents an era which is now probably gone forever. And anybody who lived through that era misses it somewhat.
CNN 20: Astronaut Alan Shepard Dies, July 21, 1998