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| Glenn on the cover of TIME |
On February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn squeezed into the cockpit of a Mercury spacecraft called Friendship 7. The spacecraft was launched by an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, Glenn circled the Earth three times, becoming the first American to orbit the planet. This spaceflight that took all of 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds of it — showed the nation what we are able to accomplish.
Glenn saw three sunsets and sunrises that day, from an altitude of 162 miles. At each sunrise, an explosion of what looked like fireflies appeared outside the window, mystifying him. Then came a signal of a suspected problem that had ground controllers bracing for an uncertain, possibly catastrophic re-entry into the atmosphere.
Luckily, the ending was a glorious one. A collective sigh of relief was heard across the land. The president rushed off to Cape Canaveral to hail the returning hero. Bands played. People cried. Never mind that a Soviet cosmonaut had already spent 25 hours in orbit. As author Tom Wolfe has written, “John Glenn made us whole again!”
What we need now is another moment like that to bring the nation together. With the economy still struggling and people divided by their political beliefs, we need some sort of event to bring us all together like the first orbit of Earth in 1962. With NASA not as big as it was back in the 60's and 70's, what will be the event that causes us to come together as a nation and celebrate together?
This post is meant to commemorate John Glenn's feat rather than to talk about current issues.
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