It was 60 years ago today – February 20, 1962 – that astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
For decades now, women and men have flown into outer space on missions – especially trips to and from the International Space Station – with little to no fanfare. Oh, there have been exceptions, especially the tragedies of Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, but for the most part, we long ago came to take space travel for granted.
However, one of the exciting things about growing up in the 1960s, as I did, was following the tense “space race” between the United States of America and the Soviet Union (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR). The Soviets seemed to always be a step or two ahead in this race, having stunned the world with the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, followed by the first successful launch of a human into space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. Only weeks later, on May 5, America sent its first human, astronaut Alan Shepard, into space. However, whereas Gagarin had completed a full orbit of the Earth, Shepard’s flight had been only a suborbital flight, as was that of astronaut Gus Grissom on July 21.
Those two flights were exciting events for Americans, but they still left America behind the Soviets in the space race. Then, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule completed three full orbits of the Earth, sending an emphatic message that the USA would no longer play second fiddle to the Soviets in the space race.
I was in 5th grade at Spring Valley Elementary School in the Richardson, TX, school district. The timing of Glenn’s flight happened to coincide nicely with the school day. Liftoff was at 8:47 CST, and splashdown occurred at 1:42. All of the students were brought to the school cafeteria that morning, where – if memory serves – we followed the entire mission on the little black-and-white TV set up at the front of the room. Not sure how well we could see, but we could definitely listen to the coverage as Glenn and his spaceship were tracked across the skies. Following splashdown, President Kennedy called Col. Glenn to congratulate him and invite him to the White House.
On March 1, New York City honored Glenn as an American hero by treating him to a ticker-tape parade (they did that sort of thing in those days).
Glenn’s successful three-orbit flight was a significant step on the road to achieving the goal, set by President Kennedy in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961, “before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
In 1974, following his retirement from NASA, John Glenn was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Ohio. He served four distinguished terms before retiring in January 1999. In 1998, at the age of 77, Glenn had returned to space on the Space Shuttle Discovery, setting yet another record as the oldest person to fly into outer space.
Glenn died in 2016 at the age of 95, leaving behind a legacy as an inspiring and intrepid explorer, and one of distinguished service to his country and all of humanity.