The most recent U.S. astronauts to observe John Glenn into orbit and the Australian metropolis that lit up for his mission 60 years in the past each celebrated the legacy of Glenn’s historic American spaceflight.
The 4 NASA crew members presently on board the Worldwide House Station marked the anniversary in a video whereas the airport in Perth, Australia transformed its management tower into an enormous display screen for an area exploration history-themed projection.
“Sixty years in the past on Feb. 20, 1962, one of many authentic Mercury astronauts, John Glenn, blazed a path into the historical past books by launching on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission aboard his Friendship 7 capsule to turn into the primary American to orbit Earth,” mentioned Expedition 66 flight engineer Mark Vande Hei, becoming a member of his crewmates Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn for the tribute.
In photographs: John Glenn’s historic 1st U.S. orbital human spaceflight
“Glenn’s mission spanned simply three orbits of the Earth in lower than 5 hours, however completed three important targets: to put a piloted spacecraft into orbital flight across the Earth, to watch human efficiency in such circumstances and recuperate the human and the spacecraft safely again to Earth,” added Chari within the recorded video, which was shared by NASA on social media on Friday (Feb. 18).
‘Metropolis of Lights’ lit up once more
Throughout his Mercury flight, Glenn, who died in 2016 on the age of 95, took specific be aware of 1 metropolis’s lights as he flew over Western Australia.
“Simply to my proper I can see an enormous sample of lights apparently proper on the coast. I can see the define of a city and a really vivid gentle simply to the south of it,” radioed Glenn slightly below an hour into the mission.
“Perth and Rockingham, you are seeing there,” replied Mission Management.
Realizing that Glenn would fly over, the residents of Perth switched on each gentle within the metropolis to make sure they could possibly be noticed. It labored, incomes Perth the nickname “Metropolis of Lights.”
“The lights present up very properly, and thank all people for turning them on, will you?” mentioned Glenn from orbit.
Sixty years later, it was Perth Airport saying thanks to the late Glenn by placing by itself gentle present.
“It is nice to be concerned within the sixtieth anniversary, and to mark the event by lighting up the management tower is one thing fairly distinctive,” mentioned Kevin Brown, Perth Airport’s chief government officer, in an announcement.
Working with native artists VJZoo to create the projection, the airport’s management tower grew to become an enormous film display screen on the eve of the anniversary, protecting nearly 130 toes (40 meters) of the 260-foot (80 m) tower. The 2-minute animation, which ran on a continuing loop for 2 and a half hours, featured a Saturn V rocket blasting off into area and an astronaut “spacewalking” up the tower.
“We all know that John Glenn did not get out of Friendship 7 [during his flight] … however we thought it will add some enjoyable into the show,” mentioned Brown.
From hours to a long time
Whereas he didn’t go extravehicular, Glenn’s first flight into orbit paved the best way for People to spend more and more longer quantities of time circling Earth. For greater than 20 years, people have had a steady presence in orbit dwelling aboard the Worldwide House Station.
“The flights of [NASA astronauts] Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom on suborbital missions in 1961 proved the launch functionality, however questions remained as as to if the human physique may face up to longer intervals of weightlessness. John Glenn’s pioneering mission erased these doubts,” mentioned Marshburn, who at 61 is the one NASA astronaut presently in orbit who was alive for Glenn’s mission.
The crew members additionally used their video to acknowledge Black Historical past Month and its overlap with the date of Glenn’s first mission. As soon as a “hidden determine,” an African-American mathematician performed a key position within the lead-up to the Mercury-Atlas 6 launch.
“The Friendship 7 mission highlights one other large in NASA’s historical past, Katherine Johnson. As a result of complexity of the flight and his weariness of leaving intricate mathematical equations as much as machines, Glenn personally requested Johnson to run the orbital trajectory calculations for Friendship 7,” mentioned Barron.
“All of us aboard the Worldwide House Station need to honor John Glenn at present for his outstanding achievements,” mentioned Vande Hei, who will set his personal file in March, turning into the American with the one longest spaceflight at 355 days. “Due to him, we’re heading again to the moon and on to Mars and past.”
Observe collectSPACE.com on Fb and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2022 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
