John Glenn could have stopped everything in 1962 and still be in the History books forever when he participated on the Friendship 7 mission and became the first American to orbit planet Earth, but his 95 years of life are dense in incredible accomplishments.
The truth of the matter is that even if ignoring his career in NASA entirely, there would still be a whole lot to say about John Glenn.
To be considered fit for the Friendship 7 mission, each candidate had to meet seven very demanding criteria: “They had to be test pilot school graduates in excellent physical shape, less than 40 years old, shorter than 5 feet 11 inches, qualified jet pilots, and they had to have at least 1,500 hours flying time and bachelor's degrees in engineering. Glenn met all the requirements.” (Nasa)
During the Friendship 7 mission, a malfunction with the automatic control system spelled disaster during re-entry, but Glenn’s ability to fly the capsule manually. "I went to manual control and continued in that mode during the second and third orbits, and during re-entry," Glenn recalled later. (Nasa)
The success of the mission greatly surpassed the simple goal of reaching space. It was a depressing time for the country - the Cold War was testing everyone’s nerves at the risk of a nuclear catastrophe, and the Soviet Union was beating the US on the Space Race, leaving the country in a time of doubt and concern. Beyond that, space travel was in its infancy, meaning danger was ever imminent.
Therefore, the absolute success of Glenn’s mission was much more than a just a victory for the US, it was a symbol of hope for the entire nation, making Glenn an instant hero. He was, however, ever so humble about it.
“What got a lot of attention, I think, was the tenuous times we thought we were living in back in the Cold War. I don’t think it was about me. All this would have happened to anyone who happened to be selected for that flight.” - John Glenn (NYT)
He was 41 at the time, already with 21 years in the Marine Corps and having been in 149 combat missions in two wars, before his career in NASA. (Wikipedia)
NASA would not risk a national hero’s life in another space mission, considering the last reentry was very nearly a disaster, hadn’t been for Glenn’s expertise. That’s when Glenn reluctantly retired from space flights and began a new career path.
After a few years of establishing himself as a politician in Ohio, he joined the senate in 1974, later becoming the first popularly elected senator from his state to win four consecutive terms, his last being in 1992. (Nasa)
During his last months in the Senate before his retirement, in 1998, Glenn went to space one last time at the age of 77, becoming then the oldest person to go to space.
As one can tell from simply skimming over, there is much to know about John Glenn, much more than we could say in such few words, or by merely mentioning his long life packed with remarkable achievements.
So we honor the dense life of John Glenn quoting the ever so beautiful short sentence he calmly made popular when exiting Earth’s atmosphere back in 1962 - a simple remark, containing a technical remark and the most human thing he could possibly say on that day:
“Zero-G and I feel fine.”
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