TFH 2/20: John H. Glenn, Jr.

Before February 20, 1962 the United States was lagging in the space race and attaining President Kennedy's goal of reaching the Moon. Our Cold War, Communist enemies in the Soviet Union had racked up success after success (well, they didn't publicize their failures) and NASA had yet to put a human in orbit. On that morning, the hopes of the free exploration of space rested with an Atlas booster perched on the pad at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 14 with Mercury Spacecraft #13 mounted at the top. Into this titanium, cone-shaped spacecraft - not quite seven feet tall and just over six feet in diameter - climbed John H. Glenn, Jr. Glenn had named his spacecraft "Friendship 7"

His path to orbit was far from certain. To that point (by my count looking at Encyclopedia Astronautica) in a minimum of 79 times that either NASA or the USAF attempted to launch an Atlas missile, 33 times the launch ended in failure. That's a 58.2% success rate; hardly the confidence one would want to ride into space with!

At 9:47:35 EST, the Atlas roared to life and four seconds later Glenn, and the hopes of a nation, were airborne. Just five thrilling minutes later, and the first free man was safely in orbit!

Three times around our Earth later, Glenn prepared his spacecraft for reentry. Mission controllers had detected a problem that could lead to a disaster. Instrumentation reported that the spacecraft's heat shield may have come loose; without its protection, Glenn and his spacecraft would be incinerated.

The heat shield held (the instrumentation was later found to be in error), and Glenn splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean at 14:43:02. The official NASA history of his flight is found here. Throughout the rest of the Mercury program, in many ways the United States still trailed the Soviets. Glenn's successful flight put us solidly on the road to the moon, and there was no looking back.

John H. Glenn, Jr.: February 20, 1962 - forty-five years ago today - was your finest hour!