This paper analyses the transient response of a spherical elastic shell located near fee surface and impinged by spherical step-exponential acoustic shock waves. The problem is solved through extension of a method (Huang, 1969) previously formulated for the excitation in an infinite domain, which employs the classical separation of variables, series solutions, and Laplace transform technique The effect of the free surface reflection is taken into account using the image source method. The reflection of the incident wave has been treated by the same image formulation. If the reflection of the pressure field scattered and radiated by the shell is considered, the problem becomes that of multiple scattering by two spheres. However, this is in general negligible considering errors inherent from other sources and that the scattered and radiated pressure waves emanating from the shell are small. Thus, the problem is reduced to that of a structure immersed in an infinite fluid and impinged upon the origin and the image incident.