John Glenn, a former NASA astronaut who became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, died Thursday at the age of 95, and almost immediately, people started sharing their memories and thoughts about the American hero.
Includes illustrations. Photographic plates, illustrations, map Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program of the United States from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962, was the first American flight to achieve this goal. John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. Is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital. February 20, 1962 was a good day for America. In just four hours and 52 minutes, John Glenn made the country a serious player in the space race and he became an instant hero when he orbited the. Her late husband of 73 years, John Glenn, was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. He was one of the famed Mercury Seven astronauts immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s.
John Glenn Orbit Earth
One of those people was Katherine Johnson, the 'human computer' who helped check and invent the math that sent Glenn into orbit and brought him back home during his first flight decades ago.
SEE ALSO: These 'Hidden Figures' portraits profile brainy, badass women
'A good man has left Earth for the last time. John Glenn's life will long be remembered for his time in space, his courage and his service to all Americans,' Johnson said in a statement Friday.
Johnson's life is the subject of the new movie Hidden Figures, which chronicles her work at NASA as well as the work of Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — two other African-American 'human computers' who left a mark on the space agency but have not been widely celebrated until now.
John Glenn Orbits The Earth 3 Times
NASA credits Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) with 'verifying the calculations made by early electronic computers of John Glenn’s 1962 launch to orbit and the 1969 Apollo 11 trajectory to the moon.'
Glen Powell, the actor who plays Glenn in Hidden Figures, also paid tribute to Glenn's life on Twitter.
Now THAT is how you live a life! Godspeed, John Glenn. A true gentleman who humbly touched the stars and made us believe in the impossible.
— Glen Powell (@glenpowell) December 8, 2016
John Glenn Orbit Date
In Hidden Figures, Johnson — who faces horrible discrimination due to her status as an African-American woman working in a white male space in the 1960s — is key to NASA Langley's goal of putting Glenn into orbit after the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin up months before.
Hidden Figures will be released in theaters across the U.S. on Jan. 6, with limited release starting Christmas Day.
John Glenn Orbits The Earth 3 Times
BONUS: NASA just launched a spacecraft to help us find the origins of life on Earth
Comments are closed.