50 Years of Friendship 7

[scottaa1]

Nice article on John Glenn and the 50th anniversary of his first space flight. If you weren't alive back then, haven't studied the history of it, or just never cared, go watch an older movie called The Right Stuff and be amazed at the crudity of the technology in use and awed at the men who drove it.

As the world's most enduring and endearing spaceman gets set to celebrate what no other living astronaut has done -- mark the 50th anniversary of his own spaceflight -- he finds himself in overdrive reflecting on what has been an undeniably charmed, golden life.
First American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962. Oldest person to fly in space, at age 77 aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998. U.S. senator for four terms and one-time presidential candidate. Namesake of a NASA center as well as a university's school of public affairs.

The guy still goes into the office

"It's amazing to me to look back 50 years and think that it's been 50 years," Glenn said, seated in his top-floor office at Ohio State University, inside the school of public affairs that bears his name.

Fifty years ago today, Glenn circled Earth three times in five hours, putting America on even footing with the Soviet Union. ... First, a thruster malfunctioned in orbit.

I bet he'd be pretty cool to hang out with and exchange stories "What's Armstrong really like?"

[dream_017]

Love(d) the space program. Amazing that it has been 50 years and that he is around to celebrate it