Talk:John Glenn

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John Glenn was featured on the United States Marine Corps portal as the Selected biography.
(1 July - 1 September 2007).

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Contents

[edit] =citations

Friendship 7 MA-6 (23)

Friendship 7 Pad LC-14 Atlas (6)

Crew: John H. Glenn, Jr.

Milestones:

8/27/61 - Capsule arrived at Cape Canaveral 2/15/62 - Flight Safety Review 2/20/62 - Launch

Payload: Spacecraft No. 13, Vehicle Number 109-D

Mission Objective:

Place a man into earth orbit, observe his reactions to the space environment and safely return him to earth to a point where he could be readily found. The Mercury flight plan during the first orbit was to maintain optimum spacecraft attitude for radar tracking and communication checks.

Orbit: Altitude: 162.2 x 100 statute miles Inclination: 32.54 Orbits: 3 Period: 88min 29sec Duration: 0 Days, 4 hours, 55 min, 23 seconds Distance: 75,679 statute miles Velocity: 17,544 mph Max Q: 982 psf Max G: 7.7

Launch: February 20, 1962. 9:47:39 am EST. Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 14. Powered flight lasted 5 minutes 1 second and was completed normally. The mercury countdown began on 1/27/62 and was performed in two parts. Precount checks out the primary spacecraft systems, followed by a 17.5 hour hold for pyrotechnic checks, electrical connections and peroxide system servicing. Then the countdown began. The launch countdown proceeded to the T-13 minute mark and then was canceled due to adverse weather conditions. After cancellation, the mission team decided to replace the carbon dioxide absorber unit and the peroxide system had to be drained and flushed to prevent corrosion. Launch vehicle systems were then revalidated and a leak was discovered in the inner bulkhead of the fuel tank that required 4-6 days to repair. The launch was rescheduled to 2/13/62 and then to 2/14/62 to all the bulkhead work to complete. The precount picked up again on 2/13/62, 2/15/62 and 2/16/62 but was canceled each time due to adverse weather. The launch was then rescheduled for 2/20/62.

During the launch countdown on 2/20/62, all systems were energized and final overall checks were made. the count started at T-390 minutes by installing and connecting the escape-rocket igniter. The service structure was then cleared and the spacecraft was powered to verify no inadvertent pyrotechnic ignition. The personnel then returned to the service structure to prepare for static firing of the reaction control system at T-250 minutes. The spacecraft was then prepared for boarding at T-120 minutes. The hatch was put into place at T-90 minutes. During installation a bolt was broken, and the hatch had to be removed to replace the bolt causing a 40 minute hold. From T-90 to T-55 final mechanical work and spacecraft checks were made and the service was evacuated and moved away from the launch vehicle. At T-45 minutes, a 15 minute hold was required to add fuel to the launch vehicle and at T-22 minutes and additional 25 minutes was required for filling the liquid-oxygen tanks as a result of a minor malfunction in the ground support equipment used to pump liquid oxygen into the launch vehicle. At approximately T-35 minutes, filling of the liquid-oxygen tanks began and final spacecraft and launch vehicle systems checks were started.

At T-10 minutes the spacecraft went on internal power. At T-6min 30 seconds, a 2 minute hold was required to make a quick check of the network computer at Bermuda. The launch vehicle went on internal power at T-3 minutes. At T-35 seconds the spacecraft umbilical was ejected and at T-0 the main engines started. Liftoff occurred at T+4 seconds at 9:47:39am EST. Landing:

February 20, 1962. 14:43:02 am EST. 800 miles southeast of Bermuda. Recovered by the destroyer USS Noa. Lookouts on the destroyer sighted the main parachute at an altitude of 5,000 ft from a range of 5nm. The Noa had the spacecraft aboard 21 minutes after landing and astronaut John Glenn remained in the spacecraft during pickup. Original plans had called for egress through the top hatch but Glenn was becoming uncomfortably warm and it was decided to exit by the easier egress path.

Mission Highlights:

Mission Successful. First American in orbit. Total time weightless 4 hours 48min 27sec.

During the flight only two major problems were encountered: (1) a yaw attitude control jet apparently clogged at the end of the first orbit, forcing the astronaut to abandon the automatic control system for the manual-electrical fly-by-wire system; and (2) a faulty switch in the heat shield circuit indicated that the clamp holding the shield had been prematurely released- a signal later found to be false. During reentry, however, the retropack was not jettisoned but retained as a safety measure to hold the heat shield in place in the event it had loosened.

[edit] Ties with the Kennedys

I am translating (more or less) this article into Hebrew (for the Hebrew Wikipedia), and I saw the extraordinary claim :

He also became a personal friend of the Kennedy family, and was the one chosen by Jackie Kennedy to break the news to the Kennedy children of what had happened to their father on November 22, 1963."

I tried to "google" more information in order to varify this, but could find nothing. Can anybody find an evidence for this?

I did find, however, that he was one of the pallbearers in Robert Kennedy's funeral, and that he presented the folded flag to Ethel and Joe Kennedy in behalf of the United States. [1]. I aslo found an evidence that he was around during the assaination itself [2].

So can anyone (with a better English, and better knowledge than mine) check these things, and incorporate them into the article?

Thanks eman 22:46, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

And now I find a version of the story about telling the children, but Robert's children [3] eman 00:07, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one has answered this question yet. Isn't there anyone who knows whether this claim is correct, that Jackie asked John Glenn to tell her kids about the President's death? It appears to be well documented (see the citation above and also see a PBS special on John Glenn that is viewable on "The Right Stuff" DVD) that John Glenn told Robert Kennedy's kids about their father's death. I find it hard to believe that he also broke the news to John F. Kennedy's kids. --Milkncookie 04:38, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

When was John Glenn and Annie Castor married?

When was the specific date of John and Annie's wedding -month/date/1943

I just completed reading "John Glenn A Memoir" by John Glenn with Nick Taylor, Bantam Books, 1999, ISBN 0553110748. John Glenn does write about being asked by Robert Kennedy's wife to inform some of her children about the death of their father. He does not write about informing any of President John F. Kennedy's children about their fathers death.

```` Six_Strung_Out

[edit] space travel

if john went around the world 3 times then doesnt that mean he was three days older?Deathdealer 22:45, 29 March 2006 (UTC)deathdealer

It doesn't work that way. You don't age any faster when you orbit the Earth, any more than you age faster when you travel over various timezones on a long airplane flight (eg. from New York to London). - Ageekgal 19:56, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unexplained Metzenbaum reference

"(This 1992 re-election victory is, as of 2004, the last time a Democrat won a statewide race in Ohio; DeWine later won Metzenbaum's seat upon his retirement.)"

I think this sentence is problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, its relevance and necessity in the article is questionable, although it could perhaps be defended on the grounds of it being evidence of Glenn's popularity in Ohio.

Secondly, the succession of races in which Metzenbaum, Glenn, and DeWine ran against one another, either in primary or general elections, is rather confusing, and an attempt to sort it all out might require too great an emphasis on the careers and doings of Metzenbaum and DeWine than is appropriate for an article on Glenn.

Thirdly and most importantly, the sentence references a Metzenbaum Senate term that is not mentioned or explained previously in the article; the last reference to Metzenbaum is a defeat for re-election.

I propose to delete this sentence or re-vamp this section soon unless someone else does. LeoO3 03:31, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

hey can you help me find more links about john glenn

ok here is one:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/glenn-j.html good ok. 169.139.112.8 16:30, 30 March 2006 (UTC)deathdealer

[edit] citation needed again

Here patrick shaw wrote this too. NAME: John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (former)

PERSONAL DATA: Born July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. Married to the former Anna Margaret Castor of New Concord, Ohio. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.

EDUCATION: Glenn attended primary and secondary schools in New Concord, Ohio. He attended Muskingum College in New Concord and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. Muskingum College also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in engineering. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from nine colleges or universities.

SPECIAL HONORS: Glenn has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions, and holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his service during World War II and Korea. Glenn also holds the Navy Unit Commendation for service in Korea, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Navy's Astronaut Wings, the Marine Corps' Astronaut Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

EXPERIENCE: He entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March 1942 and was graduated from this program and commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. After advanced training, he joined Marine Fighter Squadron 155 and spent a year flying F-4U fighters in the Marshall Islands.

During his World War II service, he flew 59 combat missions. After the war, he was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol and served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950 Glenn was an instructor in advanced flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico, Virginia. In Korea he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the in F-86 Sabrejet. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea Glenn downed three MIG's in combat along the Yalu River.

After Korea, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. After graduation, he was project officer on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (now Bureau of Naval Weapons) in Washington from November 1956 to April 1959, during which time he also attended the University of Maryland.

In July 1957, while project officer of the F8U Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York, spanning the country in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. Glenn has nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, with approximately 3,000 hours in jet aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Glenn was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, in April 1959 after his selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut. The Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1962. Glenn flew on Mercury-6 (February 20, 1962) and STS-95 (October 29 to November 7, 1998), and has logged over 218 hours in space. Prior to his first flight, Glenn had served as backup pilot for Astronauts Shepard and Grissom. When astronauts were given special assignments to ensure pilot input into the design and development of spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout and control functioning, including some of the early designs for the Apollo Project. Glenn resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center on January 16, 1964. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 1965. He was a business executive from 1965 until his election to the United States Senate in November 1974. Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: On February 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, he completed a successful three-orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of approximately 162 statute miles and an orbital velocity of approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Glenn's "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles southeast of KSC in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island. Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.

STS-95 Discovery (October 29 to November 7, 1998) was a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and investigations on space flight and the aging process. The mission was accomplished in 134 Earth orbits, traveling 3.6 million miles in 213 hours and 44 minutes.

[edit] Bathroom tub story

I'm skeptical of the "bathroom tub story" which is contained in the article; and I think that part should be altered. Rather, instead what happened is likely he knew that his candidacy wasn't competitive in that year. And that he should wait out the race until the public got used to the idea of John Glenn the politican. This happens often in politics, where a story is created in order to bow out quietly. For a current example: see Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's dropping out of the 2006 Governor's race. The stated reason was "because my family needs me." The real reason: his wife's DUI doesn't look good and because the party dems wouldn't support him in the primaries. They are trying to knock down the low-lying fruit and the only way to do so is to have a candidate escape unscathed from the primaries and for the whole party to rally around one candidate early. Atleast that's what the political elites in the Ohio Democratic Party think, anyway. Forget what the electorate thinks. Or how the electorate would benefit from having a real primary.

There's no evidence to support the concept that the "bathtub story" was a lie; obviously there were no witnesses to such a private event, if it occurred. Until some such evidence comes out, I don't see how it would be fair to replace the man's own story with unsupportable speculation. Obviously, anyone can lie about some unwitnessed private events in their own lives; if all such stories were unilaterally exorcised from Wikipedia, I would speculate that nearly all biograhical articles would suddenly become somewhat shorter. Rlquall 22:54, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
A PBS documentary that can be seen on the DVD version of "The Right Stuff" explores this event for a couple minutes. It describes John Glenn as being very distraught and upset that he had to drop out of the race. He is not a quitter. Furthermore, it appears from the documentary that he was actually diagnosed with some form of vertigo. Can anyone confirm this? --Milkncookie 04:44, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Earliest born astronaut?

From what I've read it seems that he became the oldest astronaut on his first flight in 1962! This would suggest that he was born earlier (July 18, 1921) than any other astronaut or cosmonaut (or taikonaut). --Anshelm '77 02:21, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Move into politics

How many other astronauts have become politicians? I know a few have gone up while serving (Glenn included). - Matthew238 02:59, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Harrison Schmitt was a Senator from New Mexico. Jack Swigert was elected to Congress in Colorado, but he died before taking office. His statue is at Denver International Airport. - User:mrego 01:28, 03 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed uncited assertion from article

I removed the following from the article, since I think it needs a cite if it is to be kept:

As Glenn passed over his hometown, a child in the neighborhood reportedly ran to the Glenn house shouting "Johnny dropped a bomb! Johnny dropped a bomb! Johnny dropped a bomb!" as the sonic boom shook the town.

-- The Anome 18:20, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

This is in his autobiography, which I don't have in front of me. I will cite it this week. Rkevins82 04:20, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

The opening paragraph states: "He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7," which does not eliminate the possibility that other Americans in other vehicles orbited the earth before him. How about "He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth. His spacecraft was called the Friendhip 7."? 172.144.203.141 05:43, 14 April 2007 (UTC)RKH

[edit] Revert edit of 00:40, 7 May 2007 71.244.140.70

originally mis-attributed to edit of 18:55, 6 May 2007 ERcheck

  • This edit introduced spelling and wiki-quotation-mark flaws I could have just edited out. These must be fixed in any reversion.
  • Replacing "Magnet Ass" with "magnetic ***" where "Magnet Ass" had a proper citation from a book is not appropriate unless it can be justified from a reliable source. Before changing "Magnet Ass" to "magnetic ass" please show it's not in that book, show something contradictory from another reliable source, or dig through the article history and show "Magnet Ass" wasn't what was originally there. Thanks.
  • Another option: If such trivia or language is inappropriate for Wikipedia, bring it up here for discussion. If the consensus is to remove that sentence, remove it. davidwr 09f9 03:07, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
Note, this edit that is referred to above was not made by me. It was the follow-on edit by 71.244.140.70 at 00:40, 7 May 2007. See diff here. My edit at the time indicated above was a reversion of vandalism. — ERcheck (talk) 03:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
My sincerest apologies for the mistaken identity. davidwr 09f9 03:56, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:05, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious

I do not have the video referenced, but it sounds more like a conspiracy theory "documentary" rather than an independent impartial verifiable source. It appears these two Italian brothers made many "impressive" and disputed claims. I've toned it down a bit, but I'd be quite happy with this paragraph being deleted altogether. (EhJJ)TALK 23:45, 31 March 2008 (UTC)