To Absent Friends - God Speed, John Glenn

John Glenn

1921-2016

Back in February, 1962, I was in sixth grade when all school activity stopped as all classrooms at St. Philomena School were tuned in to massive black and white television sets to watch the launch and follow the flight of Friendship 7 piloted by astronaut John Glenn.  Glenn would become the third American to fly into outer space and the first American to orbit the earth, which he did three times that day during his five flight before successfully returning to earth.  Few people today under the age of fifty can comprehend what an enormous feat that was at the time, and it all came back to our collective consciousness's this week when John Glenn died at the age of 95.

At the height of the Cold War - the Cuban Missile Crisis was still in the future - when the USA had lost ground to the USSR in the all-important "Space Race", the successful flight (space travel is still not a sure thing in the 21st century, and it most certainly wasn't in 1962) Friendship 7 was a HUGE story in America, and it made John Glenn a hero the likes of which America had not seen in a long time, if ever.  Glenn was so big, that President Kennedy silently ordered that there would be no more space flights for him, since the country could not afford to lose a hero of such magnitude in the event of a space fatality.  This disappointed Glenn, but he made up for it in 1998, when at the age of 77, he became the oldest American to fly in space as a crew member of the space shuttle, Discovery.  

Before all of that, Glenn was an American hero. He flew over 150 missions as fighter pilot in WW II and the Korean War, and he would also go on to serve the country as a four term United States Senator from Ohio.  If anyone ever personified the "right stuff", it was John Glenn.

Glenn was the last surviving member of the original seven Mercury astronauts.  I, and I am sure many of my generation, can still rattle off the names (Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Carpenter, Cooper, Schirra, and Slayton), even though I am guessing that their names are never even mentioned in history classes in schools today.  Author Tom Wolfe wrote a terrific book about the space program and the Mercury program called "The Right Stuff", and an equally terrific movie of the same name was made based upon it.  As a tribute to John Glenn and his brother space pioneers, do yourself a favor and read the book or see the movie, or both.  It will be time well spent.

RIP, and God speed, John Glenn.

To Absent Friends: Scott Carpenter

One of the original Mercury astronauts, Scott Carpenter (front row, far right), passed away this week at the age of 88.  

You have to be pretty much my age and older to remember the wonder and awe that was felt when the United States and the USSR first sent men into outer space.   Carpenter was the fourth American to go into space aboard his Mercury Aurora 7 capsule in 1962.  His flight was controversial, in that he landed 250 miles away from the intended splashdown location, and there were NASA officials critical of Carpenter for not properly following procedures and instructions, which resulted in the missed landing.  Whatever the reasons, Carpenter's Mercury flight was his only mission into outer space.

John Glenn, at age 92, remains the last surviving member of the Mercury astronaut corps.

You would be well served if news of Carpenter's death prompts you to read Tom Wolfe's terrific book, "The Right Stuff" about the Mercury program and its astronauts, or see the equally terrific movie that was made from it.

RIP Scott Carpenter.