Bored? Like space? Have nothing to tomorrow on President's day? Well, a couple of prominent local institutions will be holding celebrations to commemorate John Glenn, who, 50 years ago tomorrow, became the first American to orbit the Earth.
It was on February 20, 1962 that John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in his Friendship 7space capsule. In making his nearly 5-hour flight, and history, in the process, Glenn showed the world that the United States was indeed on-par with the Soviet Union, which had already launched 2 orbital flights as compared to 2 non-orbital launches for the United States. For NASA, Glenn's achievement was a huge boost to morale after a pair of suborbital flights the previous year.
Glenn was born in Cambridge, Ohio (about a 2 hour drive South of Cleveland) on July 18, 1921. In 1942, he graduated as a Naval aviation cadet and then joined the Marines the following year. In total, Glenn flew 59 combat missions during WWII and 90 more in Korea. During the aeronautical technology boom of the 1950s, Glenn became a test pilot before being selected to join America's inaugural group of astronauts, the Mercury 7.
Returning to Earth an American hero after his legendary flight, NASA refused to let Glenn fly again for risk of losing someone of such immense stature. After leaving NASA in 1964 during the Mercury-Gemini transition, Glenn first went into business and then politics, serving in the Senate and representing Ohio for a quarter of a century, a position from which he continued to support America's space programs. In 1998, age 77, Glenn again made history by becoming the oldest astronaut when he flew aboard shuttle Discovery on the STS-95 mission.
Now for the local festivities.
Looking for something to do on Friday, March 2. There will be a 50thanniversary tribute at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center at 1pm. Featured speaker: Glenn himself. Tickets are limited in number and attendees will be chosen by lottery. Go here to register for your chance to attend.
Also the Great Lakes Science Center, which houses the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, will be hosting a program commemorating Glenn's flight on Monday, with doors opening at 10:15am and the main program, hosted by NASA astronaut Gregory H. Johnson, starting at 11am. If you want to get Johnson's autograph, plan on arriving early. Even better, the event is camera-friendly, too.
There are a lot of Cleveland connections in Glenn's story. First of all, Glenn is an Ohio native from Cambridge, about 2 hours South of Cleveland. Also, NASA's local research facility, the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, located in Brookpark, was re-named for Glenn in 1999, the year after Glenn's return to space aboard the shuttle. Interestingly enough, in 1960, Glenn trained at what was then known as Lewis Field in preparation for hisFriendship 7flight.
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