John Glenn – 1st American in orbit – 62 years in the past at this time
John Glenn turned the primary American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962, 62 years in the past at this time. In 4 hours and 55 minutes, he circled the globe 3 times in his space capsule Friendship 7. The feat made Glenn a nationwide hero and a family title.
It was the ’60s, and the space race was on. The U.S. and the Soviet Union competed to attain essential firsts in space.
Glenn was one of many first American astronauts, a member of the group NASA referred to as the Mercury 7. Writer Tom Wolfe immortalized them in his masterly 1979 e-book The Right Stuff. Glenn and his fellow astronauts rode cramped Mercury space capsules into the unknown.
In these days, NASA astronauts gave private nicknames to their space capsules. Glenn and his household selected the phrase Friendship, including the quantity 7 to honor his fellow Mercury astronauts. However NASA’s official title for Glenn’s mission was Mercury-Atlas 6: Mercury for the Roman god of pace and Atlas 6 to point that this was the sixth mission to launch atop the highly effective Atlas rocket.
“Godspeed, John Glenn”
Atlas rocket and climate issues compelled NASA to postpone Glenn’s orbital launch 4 occasions. Lastly, with the climate cooperating and the Atlas issues resolved, Glenn strapped into Friendship 7 early on the morning of February 20, 1962. Schoolchildren (together with me) watched on tv because the countdown ended and Glenn blasted into space. As History.com defined:
As mission management carried out its ultimate system checks, check conductor Tom O’Malley initiated the launch sequence, including a private prayer, ‘Could the great Lord journey all the way in which,’ to which Carpenter, the backup astronaut for the mission, added, ‘Godspeed, John Glenn.’ Carpenter later defined that he had provide you with the phrase on the spot, nevertheless it did maintain significance for many check pilots and astronauts: ‘In these days, pace was magic … and no person had gone that quick. If you will get that pace, you’re home-free.’
In different phrases, to achieve even a low Earth orbit, the problem is to achieve a fast-enough pace. The imply orbital velocity wanted to keep up a steady low Earth orbit is about 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometers per hour, or 7.8 kilometers per second). Glenn reached that pace, a primary for any American.
Glenn wasn’t the primary American in space. He was third, after the brief suborbital flights of Alan Shepard (Could 1961) and Virgil “Gus” Grissom (July 1961). And he wasn’t the primary earthling to orbit Earth. Once more, he got here in third, following two Russian cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin (April 1961) and Gherman Titov (August 1961). Glenn’s orbital flight meant that the U.S. was catching as much as the Soviet Union within the space race.
Warmth protect hazard
John Glenn’s flight wasn’t with out its scary moments. As History.com defined:
Throughout his second orbit, Mission Management seen a sensor was issuing a warning that Friendship 7’s warmth protect and touchdown bag weren’t safe, placing the mission and Glenn in peril. Officers didn’t instantly inform Glenn of the potential downside, as a substitute asking him to run a collection of small exams on the system to see if that resolved the difficulty, which finally clued Glenn in to their issues. After a collection of discussions, it was determined that fairly than following normal procedures to discard the retrorocket (an engine designed to decelerate the capsule upon reentry), Glenn would maintain the rocket in place to assist safe the warmth protect.
In actual fact, all was properly. Glenn efficiently reentered the Earth’s ambiance and splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean. Ships, helicopters and frogmen efficiently recovered him 800 miles (1,300 km) southeast of Bermuda. Later, when engineers inspected the recovered capsule, they discovered that the warmth protect was wonderful. A defective sensor had detected an issue that didn’t exist.
John Glenn was inspirational
John Glenn’s flight made him an on the spot nationwide hero. He rode his fame to an extended profession in politics that included 25 years within the Senate and a presidential bid in 1984. Glenn returned to space at age 77 aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998. His mission’s major scientific goal was to check the results of spaceflight on seniors. Glenn handed away at age 95 on December 8, 2016.
The space race is historical past, however Glenn’s flight 62 years in the past continues to encourage. Shortly earlier than his demise, Hollywood commemorated his mission and the many individuals who made it potential within the fashionable 2016 movie Hidden Figures.
Backside line: John Glenn turned the primary American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962, 62 years in the past at this time. His space capsule was the Friendship 7.
Read more from NASA: Glenn orbits Earth
Read more from History.com: 7 things you may not know about John Glenn
