John Glenn at age 77. Credit score: NASA.
With thousands and thousands of tourists annually, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, positioned north of downtown Houston, Texas, is among the many United States’ busiest aviation hubs. And in 1998, it introduced collectively an aged couple and an aged astronaut, every about to embark on yet one more nice journey.
Thirty-six years after changing into the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn — Marine fighter pilot, Title That Tune contestant, Ohio senator, and one-time presidential candidate — was making ready to blast off in space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. Aged 77 on the time, the flight was set to make Glenn the oldest human to ever orbit Earth.
“You’ve modified my life,” stated the previous man on the airport.
“How’s that?” requested Glenn.
“All my life, I used to be fascinated by Mount Kilimanjaro,” the person replied. “I examine it and needed to climb it. Then I acquired married, we had children, and I stored placing it off. Then my spouse instructed me I used to be too previous.”
The person’s spouse rolled her eyes, a nervous smile cleaving aside her lips.
“But when John Glenn can return to space at age 77,” the old-timer continued, “I can climb Kilimanjaro. We’ve acquired tickets to Africa subsequent month.”
Glenn, who died in 2016, was touched by this story of a tenacious human spirit breaking society’s age-biased glass ceiling.
“The thrill surrounding my return to space,” he wrote in John Glenn: A Memoir (Bantum, 2000), “was on account of that redefinition of what folks may count on of the aged and what the aged may count on of themselves.”
Opening act: The primary American to orbit Earth
Glenn was America’s oldest astronaut not as soon as, however twice. Strapped into the tiny Friendship 7 capsule, he first circled the globe 3 times throughout a drama-filled 5 hours on Feb. 20, 1962. Forty years previous on the time, that flight made Glenn the primary quadragenarian astronaut.
The report didn’t final, nevertheless. Deke Slayton turned the primary over-50 spacefarer in the course of the Apollo-Soyuz mission in July 1975, and Story Musgrave did likewise for over-60s on space shuttle Columbia in late 1996.
John Glenn turns into the oldest particular person to orbit Earth
Glenn’s belated second act on this lifelong defiance of limits started in 1995. Perusing NASA medical literature, he observed that a number of physiological illnesses peculiar to astronauts — osteoporosis, muscle wastage, stability issues, weakened immune methods — mirror these typically seen within the aged. He questioned if flying an older astronaut would possibly yield insights that might profit folks on Earth. And naturally, he was keen to function the take a look at topic himself.
A promising assembly with then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, in addition to Glenn’s assist for President Invoice Clinton’s 1996 re-election marketing campaign, earned the astronaut two highly effective endorsements. Whereas on the marketing campaign path in Ohio, for example, Clinton even pulled Glenn apart. “I hope that shuttle flight works out for you,” the president grinned.
Along with gaining govt assist, Glenn was additionally required to go a full medical examination given by John Eisold, attending doctor of Congress, which discovered nothing to preclude the astronaut’s return to space.
Elated, Glenn once more requested Goldin for a shuttle seat. The administrator agreed on two situations: The flight should be scientifically worthwhile, and Glenn should go all exams required by active-duty astronauts, most of whom had been half his age.
Goldin’s warning was not unreasonable. NASA was roundly roasted by politicians, press, and public alike for flying congressmen, senators, and a Saudi prince on the space shuttle, in addition to schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who died on Challenger’s final, fatal flight. However by late 1997, rumor swirled that Glenn’s shuttle mission was within the bag.
Nevertheless, his household took longer to persuade. “Over my lifeless physique,” his spouse Annie snapped when she first heard the information.
A flight to recollect: John Glenn and STS-95
After a whirlwind eight months of coaching, Discovery’s STS-95 crew of 5 People (together with Glenn), a Japanese surgeon, and Pedro Duque, the primary Spanish astronaut, reached the launch pad on Oct 29, 1998. 5 of them had been solely youngsters when Glenn first flew to space aboard Friendship 7 in 1962, and Duque had not even been born but.
All however Glenn and Duque had flown within the shuttle earlier than, affording scope for a prank or two. For example, Commander Curt Brown gave the shuttle veterans mock boarding passes earlier than the flight, which they dutifully produced from their pockets. This led Glenn and Duque to change nervous glances. Earlier than they may utter a phrase, nevertheless, huge grins creased the faces of their crewmates.
“We had bitten, hook, line, and sinker,” Glenn later wrote. “Pedro and I had our initiation ceremony.”
In the course of the countdown, Challenge Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter spoke with the STS-95 astronauts over the radio. Years earlier, Carpenter had wished Glenn bon voyage earlier than Friendship 7. Now he reprised that position for STS-95.
“It appears applicable,” Carpenter stated, “to say to the shuttle Discovery crew, good luck, have a protected flight, and to say as soon as once more: Godspeed, John Glenn.”
Cheered on by 250,000 well-wishers, together with President Clinton himself, Discovery severed the shackles of Earth at 2:19 p.m. ET on Oct. 29, 1998. The crew spent the subsequent 9 days in orbit finishing up a slew of analysis experiments, a few of which had been designed to match getting old with the unintended effects of spaceflight.
By all accounts, the STS-95 astronauts cherished having Glenn aboard the shuttle with them. Scott Parazynski, for example, in contrast the mission to climbing Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary or taking part in baseball with Babe Ruth.
What did John Glenn’s record-breaking flight educate us?
After the flight, critics remained unconvinced {that a} singular data-point (Glenn) was sufficient to ignite significant analysis into getting old. Some queried the necessity for even older astronauts, whereas others branded STS-95 as a publicity stunt of low scientific benefit that rashly endangered a U.S. nationwide hero. Unsurprisingly, Glenn was wont to disagree.
For 9 days in the course of the flight, the crew carried out 80 medical, crystal development, cell biology, and astronomy experiments. They deployed and recaptured a solar physics satellite with Discovery’s robotic arm. They usually examined {hardware} that will be used to service the Hubble House Telescope.
Glenn was the topic of a number of research, his physique glued with electrodes and his head adorned with a skullcap designed to watch brainwaves, coronary heart price, core physique temperature, and circulatory/regulatory methods. He supplied 48 urine and 17 blood samples in the course of the mission. (As a result of STS-95 flew over Halloween, Parazynski loved donning a set of Depend Dracula fangs and pouncing upon Glenn for blood-takes with “maniacal” regularity.)
Age is aware of no bounds
Returning house on Nov. 7, Glenn’s ultimate boundary-pushing flight was an entire triumph, finally proving that aged space explorers can nonetheless make main impacts.
Between 2001 and 2023, 10 astronauts over 60 years previous visited the Worldwide House Station (ISS) – and two of them even commanded it. In spring 2024, NASA’s Mike Barratt will fly to space at age 65, which is able to make him the oldest station crewmember to hold out a long-duration spaceflight.
In suborbital space, different data have fallen like ninepins. In July 2021, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, the primary octogenarian space traveler, to the sting of space (although not orbit). Three months later, 90-year-old William Shatner, who discovered performing fame as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, did likewise, making him the primary nonagenarian spaceman.
John Glenn’s age-defying spaceflight simply 25 years in the past, in addition to the more moderen achievements by different getting old astronauts, serve to remind us that age is one more glass ceiling which might and should be shattered.
