Godspeed John Glenn -- 1921 - 2016

As years go by, we get farther from the pioneering days of space travel.  Back in the 60s we had guys with the "Right Stuff" who strapped themselves to the top of ICBM missiles which the warhead was swapped with a small "spam can" space capsule. The problem was (at least with the Atlas rocket) the thing had a tendency to explode on launch, which later was reduced enough to a "safer" level that an astronaut could be put on top.
The race was on, and Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space - and orbit - while the United States only stuck our toes into space on brief launches with Redstone rockets.
Yesterday we lost John Glenn - the last of the original Mercury 7 astronauts at 95 years old.  Another chapter of early manned spaceflight has closed forever.   John had a good 95 years.  First American to actually ORBIT the earth, even came back early when there was indication that his heat shield may be deployed.  He later was "too valuable" to fly in space again, so he left NASA went into politics as a democratic senator.  He left politics in 1997.  He bugged
 and nagged NASA for 2 years to convince them to let him fly in space again on the space shuttle.  His successful plan of "studying what happens to old people in space" won them over and they let him fly as an experimental subject in October 1998 on STS-95 on Discovery.
Very cool that he was on both ends of the manned space program (up to that time - we'll have Dragon, Orion, or some other manned spacecraft in the US fleet one of these days!).

What a life!

You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what you're interests are and ambitions.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_glenn.html

 You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what your interests are and ambitions.  -- John Glenn

You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what you're interests are and ambitions. John Glenn
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_glenn.html

You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what you're interests are and ambitions. John Glenn
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_glenn.html

You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what you're interests are and ambitions. John Glenn
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_glenn.html

John and the original 7

With Freedom 7 - first US to orbit

...and another 7 - on STS-95

| NASA's Tribute to John Glenn |