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JOHN GLENN, THE first US astronaut to orbit the earth, has died aged 95.
Glenn’s limit-defying career also saw him become the oldest man ever to fly in space when he boarded the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.
Seen as a hero of the Cold War by the United States in his pioneering space race exploits, Glenn later went on to become a US Senator.
Born John Herschel Glenn Jr, he had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them.
Before he gained fame orbiting the world, he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot.
Glenn’s public life began when he broke the transcontinental airspeed record, bursting from Los Angeles to New York City in three hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.
With his Crusader averaging 725 mph, the 1957 flight proved the jet could endure stress when pushed to maximum speeds over long distances.
In the early days of the space race, the Soviet Union leaped ahead in space exploration by putting the Sputnik 1 satellite in orbit in 1957.
Four years later, the Soviet Union launched the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in a 108-minute orbital flight on 12 April, 1961.
After two suborbital flights by Alan Shepard Jr. and Gus Grissom, it was up to Glenn to be the first American to orbit the Earth.
“Godspeed, John Glenn,” fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed just before Glenn thundered off a Cape Canaveral launch pad on 20 February, 1962.
With the all-business phrase, “Roger, the clock is operating, we’re underway,” Glenn radioed to Earth as he started his 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds in space.
Years later, he explained he said that because he didn’t feel like he had lifted off and it was the only way he knew he had launched.
During the flight, Glenn uttered a phrase that he would repeat frequently throughout life:
Zero G, and I feel fine.
Glenn said he was often asked if he was afraid, and he replied, “If you are talking about fear that overcomes what you are supposed to do, no. You’ve trained very hard for those flights.”
Glenn’s ride in the cramped Friendship 7 capsule had its scary moments, however.
Sensors showed his heat shield was loose after three orbits, and Mission Control worried he might burn up during re-entry when temperatures reached 3,000 degrees. But the heat shield held.
Glenn spent 24 years in the U.S. Senate, representing Ohio longer than any other senator in the state’s history until 1997.
During his time in the Senate, Glenn became an expert on nuclear weaponry and was the Senate’s most dogged advocate of nonproliferation. In 1984 he made an unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
His long political career enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery at age 77 in 1998, a cosmic victory lap that he relished and turned into a teachable moment about growing old.
He holds the record for the oldest person in space.
In 1943, Glenn married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor.
They met when they were toddlers, and when she had mumps as a teenager, he came to her house, cut a hole in her bedroom window screen, and passed her a radio to keep her company, a friend later recounted.
“I don’t remember the first time I told Annie I loved her, or the first time she told me,” Glenn would write in his memoir. “It was just something we both knew.”
They had two children, Carolyn and John David.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
Quite obvious now that North Korea were not behind the attack. Not that the US has ever relied on real evidence when it comes to throwing their weight around. Nobel Prize Obama – what a joke!
It was a trial run: next they will find evidence if WMD’s
The United States through its corrupt administration has now coined itself as the lying make believe false flag capital of the world.
http://constitutionclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/obama_lies1.jpg
Obama and the US shown to be fools again looking to pick a bar fight around the world regardless of the evidence.
Hey there Sony CEO boss, maybe you should spend more time fixing your crappy network security and less time spouting off about how many times your company has been compromised in the past 24 months on the news.
Seriously, if Sony spent as much time on security as they did PR they wouldn’t have these problems.
Some1 takes the blame and the Americans r still blaming north Korea typical Americans no evidence no proof and still trying for a fight. The only people coming out of this looking bad is the good old u.s again.
Baby you’re a firework
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind?
Sony hackers are my new Heroes
There’s a lot to be said for the pill Glen when I read your pure drivel!
What is wrong with hacked movies ?? I would appreciate all comments on this question … Thank you if you take the time to answer
Just red thumbs but not a single reason as to why people shouldn’t watch illegal downloads ….
Its about the worst film you will ever see, only way to sell it was to fake a hack
It reminds me of all the BS surrounding that Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11
There was nothing in that film that wasn’t public. The issue with that useless waste of space is he could of exposed certain cover ups but didn’t …
They certainly didn’t make a cent from me watching it.
It is very simple. In the not too distant future big money movies will simply not be made. Then everyone loses out, even you. Sure why would any company make a movie if they can’t make something out of it. Then the most creative among us would be left unemployed screen writers, actors and actress, writers and everyone else involved.
Well then Helen we will go back to reading books, enjoying the outdoors.
Don’t get me wrong I like a good flick but the Orwellian and brainwashing overtones are conditioning is to be violent useless eaters..
Helen Gallagher_ I am totally against down loading movies however when it comes to this type of blatant propaganda and war mongering my conscience would go straight out the window. BTW I watched it in a mates house and it was the greatest ball of crap that I have seen in a long time.
Helen with the amount of movie piracy through downloads over the last decade and longer with pirated vcr tapes previously hollywood has continually made big budget movies with no sign of slowing down or cutting budgets so i dont think we will have to worry about movie industry not making movies or not making money in the future. They will just keep updating their security and the hackers will break through those measures and then they will advance their security again and so on and so forth . The movie distribution business may evolve but as long as people want to watch big budget movies then big budget movies will be made
Hi I watched this movie just out of curiosity. It was a load of nonsense. Just as I had expected. There would not have been interest in The Interview only for the very fact that hacking Sony got it the media attention it would never get otherwise. This movie was pointless nonsense. We tell our children not to make fun of anyone.not even a bully. I just think this movie was such a waste of money. And I think Sony knew this too.
For a country who’s Internet randomly blacks out I doubt they could have hacked multi million euro protected servers in a large multinational company who has been fighting data breaches for years
I know North Korea is an isolated state but surely someone should tell Aul Kim there’s people called hair stylists!
Someone did once and now hes dead so no one will ever again
have your say