To mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of John Glenn's flight in Friendship 7,
which took place on February 20th 1962, the Sydney Morning Herald today has
an article by John Noble Wilford about the now 90 year old Glenn.
This coming Saturday at Cape Canaveral, Glenn will have a reunion with the
remaining team of engineers, scientists and managers who worked on the Mercury Project.
Included among the guests will be the only other remaining Mercury astronaut,
Scott Carpenter, who also acted as capsule communicator on Glenn's historic
flight.
I remember when growing up in the 60's we had a double sided record that had
voice recordings of the highlights of the flight. My brother and I would listen to
it incessantly for many years and we could recite each piece of
dialog including the timing and inflections of the various speakers.
We never tired of listening to it and each time was just as exciting as the
time before.
Sydney Morning Herald article here -
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci...214-1t3o4.html
NASA Friendship 7 web site here -
http://history.nasa.gov/friendship7/
Wikipedia entry on Friendship 7 flight here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_6