“Liftoff of six astronaut heroes and one American legend,” said NASA Public Affairs commentator, Lisa Malone, as the Space Shuttle Discovery launched off in late 1998. America’s quintessential hero, John Glenn, was returning to space 36 years after he made history as the first of his compatriots to reach Earth orbit.
“Liftoff, the clock is operating. We’re underway,” NASA astronaut John Glenn announced as he launched to as the first American to orbit the Earth. His spacecraft’s onboard mission elapsed time clock began counting his minutes in flight as he was boosted from Florida’s East Coast on Feb. 20, 1962 – 60 years ago. After his three-orbit mission, the U.S. Marine Corps colonel returned to Earth as the quintessential American hero.
A year ago on Oct. 9, 2020, Disney+ launched a TV series re-boot of the motion picture The Right Stuff. In the revised version, the historic facts were, by in large, presented accurately. However, the personal lives of the Original 7 Mercury astronauts were depicted like the fictitious characters of a soap opera. After eight episodes, the streaming network mercifully pushed the “abort button” and cancelled the series.
In the summer of 1961, NASA was ready to launch its second piloted spaceflight. It was the next step in Project Mercury’s program to study human capabilities during space travel. Two months earlier, Alan Shepard’s textbook sub-orbital mission made it look easy. But, the splashdown and recovery of the encore flight dramatically demonstrated it is a perilous endeavor requiring attention to detail and extensive preflight training.
According to an ancient Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” NASA is preparing to return astronauts to the Moon followed by exploration of Mars, a planet that is 121 million miles from Earth. Those journeys began 60 years ago with a single, 116-mile “step” into space by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961.
The dream of breaking the “chains of gravity” and traveling through space was realized six decades ago on April 12, 1961. At age 27, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched into a one-orbit mission around the Earth becoming the first person to venture into the cosmos. While it was another volley in the Cold War with the United States, it marked a historic achievement hailed around the world.
When John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president in 1961, he promised to reach for a “New Frontier.” Attention abroad concentrated on the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Closer to home, there was increasing unrest among those who were being left behind simply because of their race. America’s space agency soon would be thrust into the forefront of both issues.
Spaceflight is inherently dangerous. From the earliest days of designing spacecraft for crews, engineers have looked for ways astronauts could be rescued in the event of a mishap involving the rocket. An American-developed option — a launch escape system, or escape tower – was copied by the Soviet Union and it saved the lives of two Russian cosmonauts.
During America’s first human spaceflight program, the eyes of the world often focused on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As the nation’s Project Mercury astronauts were taking their pioneering steps into space, a centerpiece facility in this effort for astronaut training, crew quarters and spacecraft processing was Hangar S at the Cape.
In the summer of 1969, the voice of Jack King was immortalized as he provided the countdown for the liftoff for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. He was selected as the first chief of Public Information at the Florida spaceport in 1960. During a news media event just prior to the flight of America’s first person in space, King was witness to a prank by one of NASA’s Project Mercury astronauts.