R.I.P John Glenn Ad Astra

Friendship 7  orbiting capsule

The United States was behind in the Space Race against the Soviet Union. Three of the four Atlas rockets test rockets blew up before achieving orbit. The orbiting vehicle  was space capsule which  had the leg room of a Volkswagon Beetle with the aesthetic of a garbage can.  

Still NASA astronaut John Glenn braved the dangers of flying an prototype space vehicle in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 and orbited the Earth three times.





Mission Control believed that there was a problem with the heat shield which might cause Glenn to burn up on re-entry. Thus the flight protocol was changed on the fly and Glenn would have to make a manual splashdown. As it turned out, it was merely a malfunctioning gauge. The only harm to Glenn was that the pressure from blowing the hatch slightly cut the astronaut's knuckles through his gloves.

Despite the harried re-entry, the experienced NASA test pilot was poetic in recalling his time in space, harkening to the joy of seeing four sunsets in one day. Later, Glenn was received as a hero in Wall Street with a massive ticker-tape parade, larger than the celebration for Charles Lindberg's flight across the Atlantic. 

Glenn had intended to run for the US Senate in 1964 but had a withdraw due to a concussion. Glenn served as a Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999. 

In 1998, Glenn again flew into space on the Discovery Space Shuttle at age 77 to serve as a human guinea pig on geriatrics in space. Glenn is the oldest person to go into space.

Senator John Glenn died at age 95  on December 8, 2016 at Ohio State University's James Cancer Center.

Requiem in pacem ad astra 

Out of the World ISS Musical Experiment

Kudos to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who performed and produced an out of this world music video redition of David Bowie's 1969 hit "Space Oddity" while aboard the International Space Station.  The music video was made with the full cooperation of the Canadian Space Agency and has gone viral as it has been played over 11 million times. 

This was the third time that the 53 year old former Royal Canadian Air Force officer has been to space.  This time Hadfield was ISS Commander of the Soyuz capsule as part of Expedition 35's five month mission orbiting the Earth.  

ISS Expedition 35 landing

Even though Hadfield landed in Kazhakstan on May 13th, it may take months for him to enjoy his cosmic celebrity status on the world-wide-web, as Hadfield will require a couple of months of physical therapy to recover from effects of weightessness on bone density and muscle mass. 

Crew of ISS Expedition 35 after landfall.  

A small price to be paid for sitting in a tin-can far above the world and cutting a music video which truly makes Hadfield a renowned Starman.