Looking back, it seems a different world: 1962. The Beatles were little-known kids playing gigs in England and Germany, and "rap" was something you did on a door. Diet pop? What's diet pop? The escalation of the Vietnam War was still to come.
And what most Americans knew about space was that the Soviets had launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States hadn't, and we were playing catch-up in a space race of vital importance.
There are quite a few Soviet milestones between 1957 and 1962 — the first photos of the far side of the moon and the first human orbital spaceflight among them.
Then this country caught up with a roar 50 years ago today.
On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn — self-effacing, soft-spoken, all-American — rode a rocket into orbit around the Earth. He circled three times in five hours, and it was a nail-biter: A thruster on his craft, Friendship 7, failed and Glenn had to pilot it home manually. It appeared the heat shield on the capsule was loosening and if it had, his craft would have burned up on re-entry. But Glenn, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, was up to the job.
He returned to adulation, honors and hero-worship, and took it all with typical modesty and a wry smile. And his life since has seen more achievements. He was elected a U.S. senator from Ohio for four terms and ran for president. He became the oldest person to fly in space when he was 77, aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998.
He has a NASA center named for him. Plus a university school of public affairs, where his memorabilia and papers are housed. And he flew his own plane until two years ago when he could no longer climb into the cockpit easily.
The single most important space milestone Glenn says he wishes he had accomplished came seven years after his initial orbit — in 1969, when fellow Ohioan Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.
Glenn admits to envying Armstrong, but he has nothing to blush about. His accomplishments soar with the eagles, and his life is the epitome of the American patriot serving his country. What higher commendation could there be?
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