When John Glenn blasts into space, millions will cheer him as an American hero. They will cheer him as a hero who has spent his life serving his country--first as a fighter pilot in time of war and then as a U.S. Senator mostly in times of peace. They will cheer him most loudly as a hero who, 36 years ago, became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth.
But aboard the space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to launch on October 29, Glenn will not travel as a war hero or a Senator or a legendary astronaut. Instead, he will fly as a payload specialist. His duties will include taking photographs and helping other crew members put on their space suits. It is the crew's lowest position. At age 77, the space pioneer will be taking orders from the shuttle's 42-year-old commander, Curt Brown.
That's no problem for Glenn. He's thrilled just to be onboard. But it took some getting used to for the six other crew members. "They wanted to call me Senator, and I said no," he says. "I'm coming here as John. I'm a payload specialist. Whenever they forget that, I correct them."
The 1960S Space Race
Glenn may be just a payload specialist this time around, but in 1962 he was the entire crew of Friendship 7. The refrigerator-size spacecraft was less than 10 feet long. (Compare that with the spacious 122-foot-long Discovery!)
The journey took place when the U.S. was racing to be the first country to send humans into space. Its rival: the Soviet Union (the Russian empire that broke apart in 1991). The Soviets won. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin (Your-ee Gah-gair-in) became the first person to orbit the earth.
But the U.S., under President John F. Kennedy, caught up fast. Just one month after Gagarin's flight, Alan Shepard was shot into space for a brief time. Nine months later, Glenn made his historic orbit aboard Friendship 7. In a time when Americans feared that Soviet success in space would be a military threat to the U.S., John Glenn made them feel safer. And he did something else just as important: he made Americans proud.
Studying An Aging Astronaut
Now Glenn hopes to make Americans proud once more. Training for the Discovery mission has been tough. To practice for an emergency escape, he had to strap on a harness and use a rope to shinny down the side of a giant shuttle model. Glenn admits that he's creakier than the rest of the crew: "I don't bend in the same directions they bend."
Glenn's age is one of the biggest reasons he is on the mission. Some of the effects of aging--loss of balance, loss of bone and muscle tissue, weakening of the heart--are similar to the effects astronauts experience on long space flights.
Aboard the shuttle, Glenn will wear monitors on his chest and head to measure changes in his heartbeat and brain waves. These studies may help scientists learn more about the aging process.
Just A Joyride?
Glenn's upcoming Discovery flight has cast a spell over young and old. Visitors from all over the world are traveling to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch the launch. President Clinton plans to be there too!
But not everyone is spellbound by Glenn's flight. Some people feel that launching a 77-year-old man into space is too dangerous. They think NASA is flying Glenn just to attract attention and not for scientific reasons. Glenn and NASA insist that his mission is based on science.
Others say there's nothing wrong with Glenn's having a role as more a hero than a serious scientist. "Who cares?" asks John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists. "This space flight is the same as the first one. It had everything to do with making the country feel good about itself, which is fine by me."
It's also fine by Daniel and Zach Glenn, the astronaut's grandsons. Are they excited to watch their grandpa lift off with the Discovery crew?
"It's a little scary," admits Dan, 16, "but pretty neat that he went up so long ago and is going up again." Zach, 13, sees John as much more than a pilot, a Senator or a payload specialist. "He is a great guy and a really nice grandpa," says Zach. "He's an American hero."
1962
The Astronaut
Height: 5 feet 10 inches
Hair color: Red
Age: 40
The Spacecraft
Name: Friendship 7
Crew size: 1
Windows: 1
Computers: 0
Weight: 4,256 pounds
The Mission
Name: Mercury 6
Launch date: Feb. 20, 1962
Duration: 4 hr. 55 min. 23 sec.
Distance flown: 75,679 miles
1998
The Astronaut
Height: 5 feet 10 inches
Hair: color White
Age: 77
The Spacecraft
Name: Discovery
Crew size: 7
Windows: 10
Computers: 5
Weight: 153,819 pounds
The Mission
Name: STS-95
Launch date (sched.): Oct. 29, 1998
Expected duration: 8 days 20 hr.
Distance to be flown: 3,600,000 miles