Tag: John Glenn

THIS DAY IN HISTORY – An American orbits earth – 1962

Via History.com

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Hershel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America’s first astronauts. A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY – John Glenn returns to space – 1998

Via History.com

Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr., is launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

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A LITTLE MORE ON JOHN GLENN

John Glenn’s political career predated my awareness of politics so I can’t say anything about that but as a young man and in middle age John Glenn was a bad-ass.

 

Via Wikipedia:

When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, Glenn quit college to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. However, he was never called to duty, and in March 1942 enlisted as a United States Navy aviation cadet. He went to the University of Iowa for preflight training, then continued on to NAS Olathe, Kansas, for primary training. He made his first solo flight in a military aircraft there. During his advanced training at the NAS Corpus Christi, he was offered the chance to transfer to the U.S. Marine Corps and took it.

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Godspeed, John Glenn

Guest Post by Mark Davis

Godspeed, John Glenn

In the fall of 1957, the Soviet launch of Sputnik I was a deflating moment for the United States, a blow to national pride amid broad fascination as to when man would send an artificial object into Earth orbit. Months later, the newly formed NASA began winnowing 500 test pilots down to the seven Mercury astronauts, presented to the public in April 1959. The ensuing year brought even more urgent curiosity: which nation would be the first to send a man on that first step toward the stars?

In April 1961, another blow. The Soviets beat us again as Yuri Gagarin not only claimed the first flight, but completed a full orbit of the Earth in the process. Americans Alan Shepard and Virgil (Gus) Grissom become the first two Americans in space in May and July, but theirs were suborbital hops lasting barely 15 minutes.

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