1962

— Inventing Flight: The Centennial Celebration Series #9) —

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
-William Shakespeare

In the midst of the Cold War, the United States was losing face to the Soviet Union's superior space program. The Soviets had already put cosmonauts in space and were looking toward the moon. In the summer of 1961, with only one fifteen-minute space flight under the nation's belt, President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It was the tallest order the nation had faced since World War II, and the first step was to place an astronaut in orbit.

For this initial step, an Ohioan would once again emerge at the forefront of aviation pioneers. John Glenn was assigned the task of piloting the first attempt to orbit the Earth. American scientists could only guess at what effect zero gravity would have on the human body. Could a person breathe properly, coordinate movement, swallow food? Glenn would find out.

On the morning of February 20, 1962, Friendship 7 lifted off. The craft glided into orbit around the Earth, and during nearly five hours in space Glenn watched the sun rise three times. He suffered no ill effects from weightlessness. He splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas where he was picked up 21 minutes later by a U.S. naval ship. The flight was a complete success.

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