On February 20, 1962 John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. Three times around the world, nearly five hours in space and he splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
February 20 is also my birthday so John Glenn’s accomplishment has always been special to me. My mother saved the newspaper from that day and I have kept it and read it many times. That day was exciting for many of us.
…activity virtually ground to a standstill around 11:25 today. That was the approximate time when Astronaut Lt. Col. John Glenn started his descent from space. The Bulletin [our local newspaper] switchboard, normally a confusion of incoming calls at this time, was strangely silent. Calls didn’t resume until after Glenn’s reported landing after 11:45 a.m. [from The Bend Bulletin, February 20, 1962]
John Glenn’s feat sparked my interest in space. I have followed the Astronauts and their flights through the years. I was in Europe when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon. What an exciting time that was! I was in Salzburg, Austria and huge screens in the city showed those first steps. Austrians congratulated any Americans they saw that day (as though we had had something to do with that Moon walk!) Between John Glenn’s flight and those first steps on the Moon only a little over seven years passed. What a tremendous achievement.
My interest in space also fueled my interest in science fiction and fantasy. During the 1960’s I read lots of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Andre Norton. I also watched Star Trek and a few years later Star Wars and Star Trek: The Next Generation plus all the Star Trek spinoffs.
When personal computers first arrived on the scene I was ready to try them–again thanks to my interest in space and science fiction. Computers opened my imagination through the years as much as reading has.
I have much to thank John Glenn for!
Addendum:
I am on the West Coast visiting my family and last night I watched the lunar eclipse. It was wonderful! I had a great view–clear skies, total eclipse at 7 p.m. local time, and I just walked outside the house and looked over the roof. My children and husband called from various parts of the country and they were watching it, too! An additional birthday gift!
I really liked your post about John Glenn! Your post reminded me of how common place space flight has become. When John Glenn went into space (or man first walked on the moon) it was big news and was shown live on the three major news channels. Now space flight has become common and you only hear about things (like the space shuttle landing today) on the 24 hour new channels (which need something to fill up the day). On a positive note, we can now see live, color footage of the astronauts on the International Space Station. I also love the IMAX films which show pictures of earth from space (although I realize that in part this is NASA public relations efforts to promote the manned space program and the NASA budget).
While I like manned space flight, I am also a fiscal conservative and thinks that we don’t need to spend so much on manned space flight (when we have huge budget deficets). In addition, the spending on manned space flights crowds out the great space work being done with unmanned probes (thinks of the two rovers on Mars) or the Hubble space telescope (although we have to be glad that we had manned space flight to repair the snafu with the mirrors on the original Hubble satellite).
Finally, it’s interesting to read older science fiction books and see how the science has become dated. For example, as a boy, I loved to read “Tom Swift” stories (with cone-shaped rocket ships and fins on the rocket ships)! At the same time, science fiction which is based on human conditions (just set in some future setting, e.g., “Blade Runner” or “Logan’s Run”) is still valid even decades later.
P.S. Happy birthday (although the fact that you were alive when John Glenn when into space indicates that you are of “a certain age”–like me!).
Yes, I agree manned space endeavors are expensive, but I also think we need to “dream big” sometimes to fire our imagination.
You are right–some of the older science fiction doesn’t stand up to time so well, but some is still interesting and relevant.
Thanks for your interesting comment.