the explorers journal - The Explorers Club

it’s all about having
the right stuff
As the Cold War with the Soviet Union intensified in
the early 1960s, America found itself decidedly behind
in the space race. Russia had already put a man (Yuri
Gagarin) into orbit around the earth. And while America
had sent two men suborbital (Alan Shepard and Gus
Grissom), many of its rockets were exploding on the
launch pad. Then on Febrary 20, 1962, astronaut John
Glenn came to bat for the U.S. and hit a home run, achieving
three earth orbits in his Mercury-Atlas Friendship
spacecraft. America pulled even with Soviets, never
to fall behind again. Glenn retired from NASA shortly
after, and served as senator from Ohio (Democrat)
for three decades before returning to the heavens
in 1998 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. At 77, he
became the oldest man in space, a record that still
stands. Explorers Journal Contributing Editor Jim
Clash caught up with Glenn, now 88, to discuss his two
flights and the current state of the U.S. space program.
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JIM CLASH: Briefly set up the historical context
for your pivotal Mercury flight in 1962.
JOHN GLENN: What people forget is what prompted
that flight, the rationale behind it. It was largely a
part of the Cold War. The Soviets were claiming
technical and research superiority to the United
States. They were bringing thousands of young
people in from Third-World countries, giving them
an education in Moscow, then sending them to
other places in the Soviet Union and back to
their homes again, almost as little Communist
emissaries.
Their claims of technical superiority were
borne out by the fact that they were launching
things, while ours were too often blowing up on
the pad. They, of course, orbited before we did.
We thought we were going to be first into space
with Al Shepard on a suborbital flight in 1961,
Astronaut John Glenn in a state of weightlessness, traveling at 17,500 miles per hour on February 20, 1962. image COurtesy NASA.