Scrapbook 1: Feb 1962 — John Glenn

THE Voice from Space spoke coolly, almost gaily . . . the voice of John Glenn giving a four-hour running commentary on a whirl around the world in which he saw three sunsets and three dawns.

As the 40-year-old American astronaut flipped over oceans and continents yesterday, he told a tense world of the things he saw and the things that happened to him.

• HE SPOKE of the “tremendous view” of the Canary Isles . . . of Africa . . . of the Indian Ocean.

• HE SPOKE of seeing the lights which people in night-time Perth, Australia, switched on to welcome him as he passed overhead . . . and he expressed his thanks for it.

• HE SPOKE from time to time of his own emotions. . . . “I feel fine” and “I feel real good.”

• HE SPOKE of his Spacecraft. He ran into some trouble with the equipment which kept the capsule flying in the right position. But he could right any “tilt” himself. And as he went into his third orbit of the globe, he reported: “No problems at all now.”

Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, was hurled into the air from the launching pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2.47 p.m. British time.

His Spacecraft was hoisted into Space by a 130-ton, 93ft.-long Atlas rocket. It was a smooth take-off . . .

Glenn had waited sixty-three days for this great moment. There had been so many postponements—and even yesterday there were delays.

Begun

But all frustration was forgotten as Glenn, in Friendship 7, rose to the skies.

Two minutes after launching and at a height of twenty miles, the “booster” rocket fell away, as planned.

Seconds later, Glenn pressed the button that “kicked” his Space capsule free of the rest of the rocket.

Friendship 7, out in Space, curved up into orbit over the Bermudas. The round-the-world hop had safely begun . . .

Riding the far skies unseen, Glenn kept sending back a series of comments on his flights to ground control at Cape Canaveral and at check points on his route.

The Spacecraft was whirling up to 100 miles above the Earth and was hitting a speed of 17,500 miles an hour when Glenn reported:

“The view is tremendous, and I feel fine.”

As the Earth’s gravity lost its pull, Glenn became weightless in his Spacecraft cabin. But he was resting comfortably on foam cushions and said that pressure in the cabin was […]

Coming over the Canary […] in the Atlantic off the African coast, he said the horizon was a brilliant blue. And he added:

“I have a beautiful view of the African coast.”

Then the Atlantic Ocean slipped into dimness behind him and he was over Africa . . . over Kano, Nigeria. Now he reported: “I am feeling comfortable.”

Twenty-eight minutes after launching, Glenn was over the Southern Sudan and entering the dark side of the Earth over the Indian Ocean—the end of his first “day” in Space.

Two minutes later, at 3.20 p.m.—he crossed the East African coast and swept over the Indian Ocean.

He was then travelling at 17,545 mph . . . crossing the Indian Ocean towards Australia.

It was time for a snack. Glenn ate from two small tubes of food.

As Glenn hurtled towards the west coast of Australia, the lights of Perth were lit to welcome him and give him a landmark.

He sent a message to a checkpoint in Australia that he had seen the “very bright lights,” and he added:

“Thank everybody for turning them on.”

And he went on:

“I am doing real well up here. . . . I am having no problems at all.”

Glenn later reported that he was crossing the Pacific, flying towards Hawaii.

He saw a SUNRISE as his Spacecraft approached the Californian coast.

At this time—4.09 p.m.—officials at Cape Canaveral reported that the cabin temperature in the Spacecraft had gone a little higher to 105-108 degrees Fahrenheit.

Glowing

“This does not appear to be any problem at this time,” the officials added.

Reporting to a control base in Mexico, Glenn said he had seen “some small particles” near his capsule . . . moving at the same speed and glowing in the sunrise.

He also reported some “minor” difficulties with his flight control system, and said he was now flying on a form of automatic pilot.

At 4.15 p.m. Glenn completed his first orbit of the Earth. His world-girdling time was 88 minutes 29 seconds . . . almost precisely as expected.

Second

On he went on the second circuit . . . out over the Atlantic again . . . over Africa again . . . and entering night again over the Indian Ocean. He reported:

“No troubles at all. Smooth and easy. Flying very nicely.”

But soon afterwards he was saying he had trouble with the automatic pilot and was drifting about 20 degrees from side to side.

On he went . . . over Australia . . . over the Pacific. As he was ending his second orbit, Glenn had to take a big decision. Should he go on for the third orbit?

Again Glenn used manual control to stop his Spacecraft “yawing” from side to side, and then reported: “Having no trouble controlling. All very smooth. . . .”

Expanding on his report of sighting “small particles” after crossing the west coast of the United States, Glenn said:

“The only really unusual thing so far were little luminous particles around the capsule, just thousands of them . . . just after sunrise over the Pacific.”

His control problem arose again. He was too busy controlling the Spacecraft to carry out some of the tests he was to have made, and the yawing of the Spacecraft was using up extra fuel needed to correct its course.

Details

It was a question whether he would have enough for a third orbit.

But Glenn decided to go for a third orbit, though he had to continue controlling his capsule by hand.

Passing over Point Arguello, California, Glenn told fellow-astronaut Wally Schirra on the ground:

“I feel real good Wally. No problems at all.”

As Friendship 7 flashed overhead, Schirra gave Glenn new details of when to fire his retro-rockets for any selected emergency landing.

As Glenn passed over Bermuda for the third time he reported he felt fine and everything was going OK.

Waiting

And as he streaked over Woomera, Australia, for the third and last time, the American Navy was waiting in the Atlantic area where he was expected to land, in the sea.

As Friendship 7 neared the end of its third circuit of the Earth, Glenn reported that his flight control system was causing the Spacecraft to “drift”—but then it appeared to have corrected itself.

He said it was more difficult than he had anticipated to judge his drift through his periscope.

BUT HE MADE IT.

Down

At the end of his third orbit Glenn fired his braking rockets. It was 7.20 p.m.

Down he came. In five minutes his Spacecraft’s speed was cut from about 17,500 m.p.h. to 270 m.p.h. In diving back into the atmosphere the astronaut came within the powerful tug of the Earth’s gravity.

Friendship 7 landed in the Caribbean Sea 7.43 last night. A destroyer picked up Glenn at 8.01.

Medal

On the Spaceshot base President Kennedy decorated Glenn with the Distinguished Service Medal of the National Space Administration.

Colonel Glenn presented the President with a Spaceman’s helmet. But the President who dislikes hats soon tucked it under his arm.

Colonel Glenn . . . wearing the Space medal presented by President Kennedy.

IN HE GOES

• Colonel Glenn is seen here entering his Spacecraft yesterday. The bell-shaped capsule—Friendship 7—is about the size of a public telephone kiosk.

Mirror Science Editor, Cape Canaveral, Friday

SPACE conqueror John Glenn came unflappably today through a roaring welcome by a crowd of 100,000 and a ceremony in which he was decorated by President Kennedy for his bravery and skill.

But then he spoke of the ONE AGONISING MOMENT on his great flight when his calm deserted him . . . when he feared hls Spaceship, Friendship 7, was about to burn up.

It was as the Spaceship was re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere for its descent into the sea, Glenn told a Press conference here tonight.

Up to that point it had been all “go”—the Spaceman’s word for “Everything fine.”

He had fired the braking rockets which would help to bring down Friendship 7.

Then came “my most anxious moment as the fireballs began to fly.”

Dropping into the Earth’s atmosphere, Friendship 7 ran into air friction which generated a heat of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“There was a bright orange glow outside the window,” said Glenn. “It became apparent something was breaking up. . . .

“Pieces were flaming very brightly as they came past the window.”

For a breathless moment Glenn thought some vital part of his Spaceship had burned away.

But then he realised that the “flaming pieces” were the straps of the package which had contained the braking rockets.

And he was further reassured when the Spaceship’s parachute blossomed out for the glide down to the sea.

“That parachute,” said Glenn, “was just about the prettiest little old sight you ever saw in your life.”

‘Warm’

In the heat caused by atmospheric friction, he added, it was “pretty warm” in his Friendship Spaceship.

That was why, he revealed, he got out of the “wrong exit” of Friendship 7 after it was hoisted on board a destroyer.

He emerged from a side-panel—which he blew open himself—instead of the top hatch, which would have taken longer.

“I had been sweating very profusely . . . and for long enough,” said Glenn.

What was the most spectacular thing he saw in Space? “It was ALL SPECTACULAR up there,” said the Spaceman.

‘Brain’

Turning from his description of his flight, Colonel Glenn told the Press conference: “I want to introduce the real power and brain in my household.”

And he introduced his wife, Anna.

Earlier in the day, Glenn had been reunited with Anna and his children, David and Carolyn, who flew to Cape Canaveral in a Presidential plane.

More than 100,000 wildly cheering people lined his route along Cocoa Beach on his way from an airfield to the Spaceshot base at Cape Canaveral.

From GEORGE FALLOWS New York, Tuesday

ANNA GLENN, petite brunette wife of America’s Space hero, never doubted that her husband’s trip would be a success.

Smiling, Mrs. Glenn tonight told reporters outside her home in Arlington, Virginia:

“I think I was worried some of the time, but faith makes things look right—like everything is going to be fine.”

She added: “This is the most wonderful day for my family. The children are so proud of their father.”

For handsome Dave Glenn, the astronaut’s sixteen-year-old son, “it was the greatest day of my life.”

Earlier, Dave, sitting by one of three television sets at the Glenn home, had tracked every mile of his father’s historic journey on charts supplied by Dad.

Also looking in, but “too excited to sit still,” was Glenn’s 14-year-old daughter Carolyn.

With them was a small group of friends, including the Rev. Frank Erwin, the Presbyterian pastor of the deeply religious Glenn family.

As requested by the 40-year-old astronaut, none of the family left the house during the flight.

But Pastor Erwin came out to talk to a crowd of reporters, television cameramen and well-wishing neighbours.

Silent

He said that the family, who spoke to Colonel Glenn by direct telephone to the capsule forty-five minutes before “blast-off,” were “overjoyed” at the successful launching.

At the moment of “lift-off”, all was quiet in the living-room, he said.

“Nobody said anything. It was no time to talk. There were prayers, but they were silent,” he added.

There were prayers, too, In New Concord, Ohio, at the home of the astronaut’s parents.

Welcome

There, too, three television sets, each tuned to a different service, were closely watched so that nothing of the flight would be missed.

The Mayor of Concord was busy planning a welcome for the brave and modest Marine Lieutenant-Colonel.

Glenn, the typical “All-American man”—from his crew-cut red hair to his pull-on shoes—was born in the town.

Already a hero there—because of his distinguished war record—Glenn is sure to get a fabulous reception.