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John Glenn, Marine Corps fight pilot, pioneer of human exploration and later a longtime United States senator, grew to become the first American to orbit the Earth on this day in historical past, Feb. 20, 1962.
“Glenn’s ride into space, a great technical accomplishment, held even greater significance for the country,” says the web site of the John & Annie Glenn Museum in the astronaut’s hometown of New Concord, Ohio.
“Americans saw the event as a political as well as scientific milestone. Across the country, they welcomed Glenn as a hero who had conquered the bounds of Earth and given new wings to America’s spirit.”
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Glenn made three journeys across the planet on his historic flight because the United States feverishly tried to hold tempo with the Soviet Union in the house race.
“The Soviets leaped ahead by placing the first man, Yuri A. Gagarin, in space on April 12, 1961, on a one-orbit flight around the Earth aboard his Vostok spaceship,” studies NASA.
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. is proven in spacesuit beside Mercury-Atlas 6 spacecraft “Friendship 7.” (Getty Images)
The dramatic interval in house exploration got here amid the existential disaster of the Cold War that pitted the United States and western constitutional democracies in opposition to the Soviet Union and communist tyranny.
The facet that received the house race may also decide the future of mankind.
“Across the country, (Americans) welcomed Glenn as a hero who had conquered the bounds of earth.” — Glenn Museum
U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard was the first American in house with a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, three weeks after Gagarin’s first-of-its-kind journey.
President John F. Kennedy then dedicated the nation to put a person on the moon earlier than the top of the last decade, in a speech earlier than a joint session of Congress on May 25.
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“If we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny … I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” the president acknowledged in his dramatic problem.
The John and Annie Glenn Museum is situated in the boyhood house of struggle veteran, house explorer and longtime U.S. Senator John Glenn in New Concord, Ohio. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Kennedy gave his extra well-known “we choose to go to moon” speech the next 12 months, on Sept. 12, 1962.
Glenn was important in America’s profitable quest to put males on the moon — a landmark achievement in the historical past of mankind nonetheless matched by no different nation.
He enlisted in the National Aviation Cadet Program at age 20 shortly after the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor and have become a Marine Corps pilot.
Glenn flew fighter missions in Korea with fellow two-war hero, Hall of Fame baseball star Ted Williams, as his wing man.
He flew dozens of fight missions in each World War II and the Korea War and later grew to become one of many world’s most completed check pilots.
His plane had been hit by enemy fireplace on 5 totally different missions, in accordance to a number of accounts of his World War II service.
John Glenn in the cockpit of the F8U-1P Crusader plane. The Marine Corps officer served in each World War II and Korea and later grew to become one among America’s prime check pilots. (U.S. Navy {photograph})
He returned the broken planes safely every time.
“For his total of 149 missions during the two wars, he received many decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross six times,” states the John and Annie Glenn Museum.
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Glenn flew fighter missions in Korea with fellow two-war hero, Hall of Fame baseball star Ted Williams, as his wing man.
“Absolutely fearless,” the Splendid Splinter, whose legendarily eager eyesight and reflexes made him a formidable power on the plate and in the cockpit, mentioned of Glenn.
“The best I ever saw. It was an honor to fly with him.”
Glenn’s popularity as prime check pilot earned him a spot as one of many “Mercury 7” — the first seven astronauts tapped to lead America’s effort at manned house exploration.
“Project Mercury was the United States’ first program to put people in space. Beginning in 1958 and completed in 1963, the program made six crewed flights and marked the start of human spaceflight in the United States,” states the National Air and Space Museum.
Glenn flew a Space Shuttle mission in 1998, at age 77, turning into the oldest human in house.
It was adopted by the Gemini and Apollo packages.
Gemini despatched 10 crews into house and included the first spacewalk. Apollo then landed six missions on the moon between 1969 and 1972. Mankind has not returned to the lunar floor for the reason that final Americans left greater than a half century in the past.
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Glenn left the house program in 1964 and retired as a colonel from the Marine Corps in 1965.
He quickly launched into a political profession — and represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1974 to 1999.
Glenn flew a Space Shuttle mission in 1998, at age 77, turning into the oldest human in house. He acquired the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2012.
In this Feb. 20, 2012, file photograph, Sen. John Glenn talks with astronauts on the International Space Station by way of satellite tv for pc earlier than a dialogue titled “Learning from the Past to Innovate for the Future” in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)
John Herschel Glenn Jr. died on Dec. 8, 2016 at age 95.
He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery after a life spent in the service of the United States in wartime, in the halls of the Capitol and main his countrymen past the bounds of Earth.
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“Surrounded by older students, encouraged by a father who liked to travel, and tutored by a devoted mother, John developed an early interest in science, a fascination with flying, and a sense of patriotism that would define his adult life,” states the John & Annie Glenn Museum.
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