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John Glenn, First American To Orbit The Earth, Dies At 95 (npr.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rest-in-peace dept.

BenBoy writes: John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 -- December 8, 2016) was an American aviator, engineer, astronaut, and United States Senator from Ohio. He was one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA to become America's first astronauts and fly the Project Mercury spacecraft. He passed away today at age 95.

26 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Godspeed, John Glenn by sh00z · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ad astra per aspera.

    1. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Some people waste their lives, or never really accomplish anything. John Glenn was not one of those people.

    2. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by sexconker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He was the meat that willingly crawled into said tin can. And you?

    3. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by networkBoy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Mind you, where several of said tin cans had exploded, crashed, or otherwise failed in a (fatal to the meat inside) way.

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    4. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      He was the meat in an automated tin can that went to the upper atmosphere. Some accomplishment.

      The tin can malfunctioned after the first orbit. He manually flew it for two more (of 7 planned). A little more than "meat," I'd say.

    5. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2, Informative

      He was the meat in an automated tin can that went to the upper atmosphere. Some accomplishment.

      You don't even deserve to breathe.

    6. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by blindseer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I assume you were also a US Senator, an officer in the USMC, a US Navy test pilot and flight instructor, and a war veteran. This short list of accomplishments is far beyond being "meat in a can".

      He was also the first person to complete a transcontinental flight that averaged supersonic speeds. He had to refuel at subsonic speeds but the average speed through the coast to coast flight exceeded that of a typical rifle bullet. That is not an easy thing to do and is something for the record books.

      He is also the oldest person to date to go into space. He was a "payload specialist" where one could argue he was the payload. You might argue this accomplishment is simply being "meat in a tin can" again but just living to be 77 is an accomplishment, and he went into space at that age. If you live to be that old, and are willing to climb into a tin can that accelerates at about 9Gs, and live to talk about it for nearly 20 years then you might have some standing to claim this is nothing to celebrate.

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      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    7. Re:Godspeed, John Glenn by blindseer · · Score: 2

      Some people waste their lives, or never really accomplish anything. John Glenn was not one of those people.

      I heard a variation on that that went something like, "Most people wonder if they've made the world better than they left it, a Marine is not one of those people."

      Semper Fi, Colonel, you are relieved of your duties.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  2. I remember... by surfdaddy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I remember as a kid of 5 in kindergarten seeing crude animation live on TV as John Glenn orbited the earth. I also remember his return flight on the Shuttle when he was in his late '70s. In between he was a Senator. What a magnificent American and human being. Why don't we seem to see more of those types of people in public life today?

    1. Re:I remember... by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not to mention the first cross country supersonic flight. The man had balls of steel.

    2. Re:I remember... by robinsonne · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because now we're so risk-averse we can't even let kids play in the park by themselves without the parents getting arrested.

    3. Re:I remember... by jonnythan · · Score: 2

      Because the public doesn't care about them. There's no space race going on today. There are no commies to compete with. There are no new worlds to explore.

    4. Re:I remember... by fsagx · · Score: 4, Funny

      balls of steel.

      That's a common misconception. His balls were actually made from glass fibers embedded in a custom high-temperature resin.

    5. Re:I remember... by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      balls of steel.

      That's a common misconception. His balls were actually made from glass fibers embedded in a custom high-temperature resin.

      With a Mylar skin.

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    6. Re:I remember... by erapert · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or expose college students to ideas that they disagree with without also providing them a safe space and reassuring them that those nasty people over there are definitely mysogynistic racist bigoted homophobic nazis and nobody likes those guys at all and you're so special, little snowflake.

  3. Misses the big points. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Informative

    John Glenn wasn't just "one of the Mercury astronauts." He was the first American to orbit the earth, as well as the last Mercury astronaut to die.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Misses the big points. by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Plus the oldest person to be shot into space, and the only payload specialist (on that flight) that I know of that was his own payload (his job was to see how space flight affects old people).

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. This was a hero by Lucas123 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    John Glenn was a U.S. Marine fighter pilot who flew 59 combat missions over the South Pacific during WWII and 63 combat missions during the Korean War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism or extraordinary achievement six times! In Korea, he got the nickname "magnet ass" because he attracted so much enemy flak on his missions.

    Oh, and then he went on to become a test pilot, the first American to orbit the Earth, a U.S. senator and then the oldest man to go into space.

    He stopped flying planes at age 90.

    "The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel." John Glenn.

    If you're looking for someone children can look up to, he's it.

    1. Re:This was a hero by cfsops · · Score: 2

      If you're looking for someone children can look up to, he's it.

      Absolutely. Someone that anyone can look up to. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem that we are able to make people like that anymore.

  5. I was fortunate to have met him a few year ago by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I took my daughter to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum when she was 7. John Glenn was there on his birthday showing some people around. I think he had turned 89 or 90 and he really could move around quickly. He was very friendly and I was able to get a picture of him with my daughter. She was so excited to have been able to meet an actual astronaut. My wife and I got a chuckle out of the young security guard that was with him. When people asked who he was, he said that he was the worlds oldest astronaut.

    1. Re:I was fortunate to have met him a few year ago by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

      You misunderstood what the security guard meant. Glenn was the oldest person to ever go into space when heÂflew aboard Discovery on STS-95Âin 1998. He was 77.

      I understood him perfectly well, and knew exactly what he meant. It's just a difference in the way different generations think of someone. It's similar to how people remember Ron Glass. Even though I watched Firefly, I remember him more from watching him play Detective Ron Harris on Barney Miller. My younger friends have no idea what Barney Miller was.

  6. Re:2016 by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

    Has anything happened this year that hasn't been an unmitigated disaster?

    The Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter.

    Scientists found the gene that is linked to ALS, which gets us one step closer to eliminating it.

    Scientists also got us one step closer to a cure for HIV in 2016.

    Cleveland finally won a championship in a major-league sport. Scientists predict this will not happen again for ~750 million years.

    That's all I got.

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    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  7. Re:2016 by Daetrin · · Score: 2

    Miyazaki announced that he was coming out of semi-retirement (again) to do another feature film.

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  8. Re:2016 by ZipK · · Score: 4, Informative

    Has anything happened this year that hasn't been an unmitigated disaster?

    Cubs win world series.

  9. He should have stayed out of politics... by bobthesungeek76036 · · Score: 2

    Keating Five

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  10. You will love this story by p51d007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ok, this will show my age... I don't really remember it, but my parents (who will NOT allow me to have it), have a photo of me during Glenn's historic flight. I was doing the "potty training" back in '62 and didn't want to miss the flight, so I grabbed my potty chair, brought it into the living room, sat it right in front of the television set (glorious old Zenith black & white 19" model) and we BOTH had a blast off. They have shown me the photo from time to time over the past 50 odd years. I'm just glad I grew up in the era BEFORE smartphones/youtube/social media, so I don't have THAT following me around like the younger generation does today.