Astronaut John Glenn

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth after the Friendship 7 capsule was launched on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission.  Here are 5 things you probably didn’t know about this American hero….

Glenn was an Old Hand at Flying Before He Entered the Space Program

Glenn became a U.S. Marine pilot after finishing his flight training in 1943, and he flew 59 combat missions during World War II.  In 1953, he flew another 90 missions while he was stationed in Korea.  Among the many decorations and medals he was awarded, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross six times.

He’s the Person Who Named the Friendship 7 Space Capsule

The capsules used in the Mercury space program were often nicknamed by the astronauts.  Glenn consulted with his children for ideas for the capsule he would be riding in, and “Friendship” was the name he decided on.  The number “7” was chosen because that was the number of members in the Mercury space program.

The Mission Was Delayed Repeatedly

The planned December 1961 mission launch was moved to January 13^th because of problems with the Atlas rocket, but bad weather caused it to be postponed again as television crews waited for the launch.  It was once again delayed January 30^th due to a fuel leak and then more bad weather.  Glenn finally made it into space in the early morning of February 20, 1962.

The Flight Didn’t Exactly Go Flawlessly

While the launch itself went fine, on the ground, information was received that a sensor was warning that the landing bag and heat shield on Friendship 7 were insecure.  While normally the retrorocket would been discarded, the team decided to leave it in place to add a layer of protection to the heat shield.  After Glenn splashed into the Atlantic Ocean following the flight, it was determined that the sensor had been the problem, not the landing bag or heat shield, and Glen had never been in danger from their malfunction.

Glenn Returned to Space 36 Years Later

Glenn stayed with NASA until 1964, but never made it back into space, and following his retirement, he served in the U.S. Senate for four terms beginning in 1974.  In 1998, he as once again chosen as a crew member aboard the space shuttle Discovery after 35 years away from the space program.  At age 77, he suited up for a nine-day mission to study how space travel affected the elderly and returned home to his second ticker-tape parade.

Rosa Parks

Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus, which spurred on the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott that helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities.  The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses.  Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation.  On this day in 2005, at the age of 92, Rosa Parks died in her apartment in Detroit, Michigan.