Fifty seven years ago, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. In 4 hours and 56 minutes, John Glenn circled the globe three times, reaching speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour. The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.
The historical flight was no easy feat. At the end of his first orbit, a yaw attitude jet clogged, forcing Glenn to abandon the automatic control system and use the manual electrical fly-by-wire system.
According to NASA, the mission objective was to "place a man into Earth orbit, observe his reactions to the space environment and safely return him to Earth to a point where he could be readily found.” Not much was known at the time about the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body or the human mind.
We take a look back at that historic mission and pay tribute to John Glenn and the hard-working brave men and women that had the right stuff and made us proud.
Here is a list of the first 5 manned space missions. The Yuri Gagarin mission came as a gut-punch in the cold war space race. The first two manned Mercury missions were short sub-orbital test flights. The successful Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, also known as Friendship 7, with John Glenn at the “wheel”, put the US back in the race and paved the way for the Gemini and Apollo missions.
Date |
Mission |
Astronaut |
Time in Orbit |
Max. Altitude km |
April 12, 1961 |
USSR Vostok 1 |
Yuri Gagarin |
1 h 48 m |
327 |
May 5, 1961 |
US Mercury MR-3 |
Alan Shepard |
15 m |
188 |
Jul 21, 1961 |
US Mercury MR-4 |
Gus Grissom
|
15 m |
190 |
Aug 6, 1961 |
USSR Vostok 2 |
Gherman Titov |
1 d 1 h 18 m |
232 |
Feb 20, 1962 |
US Mercury-Atlas MA-6 |
John Glenn |
4 h 55 m |
261 |
When the Mercury program ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space.
Some Memories and Images from the Historical Mercury 6 Mission
Glenn sought suggestions from his children for what he should name the spacecraft before deciding on the word “Friendship” and adding the number “7” to honor his fellow Mercury members.
No LCD touch panels, just lots of switches and meters.
Mr. Cool.
In this 1960 photograph, the seven original Mercury astronauts participate in U.S. Air Force survival training exercises at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Portions of their clothing have been fashioned from parachute material, and all have grown beards from their time in the wilderness. The purpose of this training was to prepare astronauts in the event of an emergency or faulty landing in a remote area. www.nasa.gov/...
Some Tributes -
A few Videos -
John Glenn’s Legacy
Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, China and Korea. He shot down three MiG-15s, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals.
Glenn received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1962 and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven.
A member of the Democratic Party, Glenn first won election to the Senate in 1974 and served for 24 years until January 1999. In 1998, while still a sitting Senator, Glenn flew on the Discovery space shuttle's STS-95 mission, and became the oldest person to fly in space and the only person to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. He died at the age of 95 in 2016.
His contributions as a U.S. Senator include -
- Environmental policies
- Energy policy to try to counter the energy crisis in the 70s
- Nuclear non-proliferation
- Safety and environmental problems with the nation's nuclear weapons facilities
- The Great Lakes Task Force, which helped protect the environment of the Great Lakes
- Increasing pay and benefits for American troops in the Persian Gulf
On his death, President Barack Obama said, "With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers, from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars."
More info at en.wikipedia.org/...
The Future
Fifty seven years later, after the end of the Apollo and the space shuttle programs, we (the U.S.) do not have a spacecraft that can carry humans into space, although we have many rockets and spacecraft that can carry satellites, cargo, telescopes and inter-planetary spacecraft into space. The test and deployment of the SpaceX and Boeing crewed spacecraft this year will enable human space flight, and pave the way for the ambitious plans to travel to the moon and Mars in the coming decade.
Here is a look at the more modest program by Virgin Galactic to launch humans (tourists) into space and the modern technology and pilots that enable it. The 5th test flight was supposed to occur today, but got scrubbed due to bad weather; it will now likely happen on Fri Feb 22. See diary “Spacecraft Departures and Arrivals this Week, Feb 20, 2019” at www.dailykos.com/… for some more info.
Here is a preview of the SpaceX and Boeing crewed spacecraft missions this year. SpaceX is targeting March 2 for an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station. Boeing will follow suit in April.
What are your thoughts and memories about John Glenn? About the space program in the 60’s? About the way we were and the way we are? About the future of the space program and humanity?
Further Reading
- John Glenn wiki — en.wikipedia.org/…
- Mercury-Atlas 6 wiki — en.wikipedia.org/…
- In Photos: How John Glenn Made History on 1st US Orbital Flight Mercury-Atlas 6 — www.space.com/…
- The Historic Flight of Mercury 6 — www.theatlantic.com/…
- Why Go To Mars? And other Planets and Moons. — www.dailykos.com/...
- Remembering Apollo 8, the Daring Moonshot Mission, on its 50th Anniversary www.dailykos.com/…
- Spacecraft Departures and Arrivals this Week, Feb 20, 2019 — www.dailykos.com/…