Fifty years ago, John Glenn -- former Marine Corps pilot and astronaut -- flew into history as the first American to orbit the Earth. On Monday, Glenn celebrated the anniversary of his Friendship 7 flight by calling the International Space Station and discussing gravity and combustion experiments.
“This is just amazing,” said Glenn, now 90, after speaking for about 20 minutes from Ohio State University with space station crew members -- about 240 miles in space. “This was a great surprise. I didn’t know I would have the honor of talking to you.”
At the Ohio forum on the future of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Glenn recognized how much the world has changed since his flight, praising advances in communication.
“I’m talking to you perfectly,” he said of the communication link between Earth and what was once truly terra incognita. “It’s just amazing to talk to you back and forth. Congratulations to all of you.”
On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Friendship 7 into orbit around Earth. He circled the globe three times before returning to a hero’s welcome. He later served in the U.S. Senate for 24 years and made a bid for president. He was the third American in space but the first to orbit the planet.
The Soviet Union put the first human into space and into orbit, in 1961. But in the years of the Cold War, it was a matter of national pride for the United States to catch up, and Glenn was among the first group of astronauts, the Mercury Seven, celebrated in fact and fiction for having "The Right Stuff."
The only other surviving Mercury astronaut is Scott Carpenter, who sent Glenn into space with the famous line, “Godspeed, John Glenn.”
At 77, Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space, in 1998.
Glenn has given his name to the NASA research center in Cleveland and a public affairs school at Ohio State, where Monday's conference kicked off. NASA administrator Charles Bolden sat at Glenn’s side.
Glenn was scheduled to participate later in a question-and-answer session with students and to attend an evening gala.
Former astronaut Mark Kelly, the commander of the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission, was set to speak at the gala. Kelly is the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who recently retired after being gravely injured in an Arizona shooting a year ago.
Glenn and the space station crew swapped details on various experiments, including how fire’s properties are affected by low-gravity conditions. At one point, Bolden asked the crew about what kind of assignment Glenn could handle.
The response was a multi-syllabic, high-tech-laden explanation about space-faring plumbing fixtures, which the astronauts finally admitted was really the toilet.
“Exactly what I thought I would get assigned to,” Glenn joked back.
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michael.muskal@latimes.com
