THE FIRST AMERICAN
TO ORBIT THE EARTH
February 20, 1962
JOHN H. GLENN, JR.
as U.S. Senator (D-Ohio)
"There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots." -- E. Hamilton Lee, 1949 (here)
Former Mercury Seven astronauts John Glenn b. (July 18, 1921) and Scott Carpenter (b. May 1, 1925) have happily lived to prove the rule and join in multiple celebrations of the events of fifty years ago. Back then the Americans were playing catch-up to the Soviets, and then "surpassed and overtook" them; now they depend on the Russians to get up into space -- as John Glenn lamented in the midst of the commemoration (here).
He did get to talk to three crew members up in the International Space Station today, including Commander Dan Burbank (here).
A wealth of material, everything from newsreel film from fifty years ago to scenes of Glenn and Carpenter addressing NASA workers this weekend, is to be found here and here and here and here and here.
