Glenn’s orbit around Earth was early victory in Space Race
Will Schoenfeld
Voice Staff
This Monday marked an important milestone in the history of America. 50 years ago, an astronaut named John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Strapped snuggly into his conical space capsule, Glenn completed three rotations around the Earth, witnessing three sunrises and sunsets in just under five hours.
Glenn’s orbital flight was a major victory for the U.S. in its now-fabled “Space Race” with the Soviet Union. Despite early advances, the Soviets had beat the U.S. – putting a man in orbit with Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight the year before.
Like his spacesuit (manufactured in nearby Akron by B. F. Goodrich), John Glenn was a product of Ohio. Glenn grew up in New Concord and briefly attended Muskingum University. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Glenn dropped out of college and served as a Marine Corps fighter pilot, flying almost 60 combat missions, including a few with wingman and future Hall of Fame pitcher Ted Williams. He continued his naval aviation career after the war ended. In 1959, Glenn and six other pilots were selected by NASA to be the first Americans in space.
John Glenn’s mission, named Friendship 7, was the third spaceflight in the young NASA’s Mercury Program. The first two flights, piloted by Astronauts Alan Sheppard and Virgil “Gus” Grissom, entered space but did not go high enough to place the astronauts in an orbit around the Earth. Started in 1958, the Mercury Project was designed to test the ability of humans to function during extended periods of zero gravity.
Before Friendship 7’s flight, many scientists worried about the effects the space environment would have on the body. Before Glenn left Earth, NASA scientists put a small eye chart similar to the one on the wall of every optometrist on the spacecraft’s instrument panel, hoping that Glenn would monitor any changes in his vision while in orbit.
Friendship 7 blasted off into a clear Florida sky on Feb. 20, 1962. The Mercury rocket, a modified booster originally designed to lob nuclear warheads towards Russia, propelled the small capsule through and out of the Earth’s atmosphere in about five minutes. Originally slated to go around the Earth seven times, a false malfunction indicator forced the NASA control team to cut the mission short.
Four hours, 50 minutes and 30 seconds after leaving Cape Canaveral on a pillar of fire, Friendship 7 splashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Safely aboard the recovery ship that grabbed him from the water, Glenn’s first words were reserved for the space capsule that carried him where no American had gone before. Smiling, he turned to Friendship 7. “It was hot in there!”
The next big anniversary for the U.S. in the Space Race is July 20, 2019, which is the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon, effectively winning the Space Race.