The man who made it even
Glenn’s flight gave US new hope
JOHN Glenn, who died on Thursday at age 95, was lauded as a hero of the American space programme on February 20, 1962, when he became the nation’s first astronaut to orbit the earth.
The accomplishment galvanised Americans and evened up the space race with the Soviets.
In sometimes fanciful language, AP reported on the liftoff that took Glenn “towards his intended rendezvous with the stars”. The AP is republishing excerpts of its original coverage.
“With a mighty shriek of its engines, an Atlas missile blasted off today to boost astronaut John H Glenn jr into a journey around the Earth.
“The huge missile spilled a torrent of flame over the launching pad. Ponderously the 125 ton monster rose slowly from the Earth to start Glenn towards his intended rendezvous with stars.
“This first attempt to put an American astronaut into orbit came after a series of frustrating postponements dating back to December 20. Technical troubles involving the Atlas guidance system, a faulty respiration sensor in Glenn’s helmet, a broken bolt on the capsule hatch cover and a fueling problem today delayed the launching.
“As the rocket was ignited, great billows of smoke poured out of the bottom of the tall Atlas, in seconds a great roar barrelled across the Cape and struck the ears of reporters and other observers nearly two miles (3.2km) away.” Less than two minutes after blastoff, Glenn reported all systems in the spaceship were “go”. Shortly before three minutes he reported the escape tower separation and the space ship was reported climbing well on its trajectory. Below, a high altitude observation plane traced a lazy “S’’ contrail to the south of the climbing missile.
As the rocket soared on toward orbit Glenn reported “I feel fine.” And that his view was tremendous.
Mercury Control Centre, receiving a steady stream of reports, said that when the Atlas separated from the capsule about five minutes after launch, Glenn reported it was a “beautiful sight to see”.
At 9.56am Glenn was reported in contact with Mercury Tracking Station in Bermuda. Glenn reported from his space ship that he could see a very large cloud pattern near the Cape Canaveral area.
Glenn’s voice piped into the public address system at the press site, loud and clear as he said, “Roger, the scope is retracting. Roger, the scope is retracted. The light is out.”
Mercury Control said the booster engine cut off 503 miles (800km) east of Cape Canaveral at an altitude of 100 miles (160km).
Glenn’s speed at the time was 17 500 miles an hour (28 000km/h) and his orbit would range from a low point of 100 miles to a high point of 160 miles (257km). It was estimated that it would take him 99 minutes to complete one orbit of the Earth, but Mercury Control said that was subject to re-evaluation.
The tape recording of Glenn’s voice just after liftoff was played at the press centre and the Mercury Control Centre.