American Astronaut John Glenn Takes His Place Among The Stars

 “Zero G, and I feel fine,” John Glenn’s first words after going into Earth’s orbit on February 20th, 1962

A Brief One from Doug Draper

Posted December 8^th, 2016 on Niagara At Large

There was a time when everyone who was over the age of 7 in 1962 knew exactly where they were and what they were doing when an American astronaut named John Glenn became the first human to orbit our Earth in space in a small capsule called ‘Friendship Seven’.

John Glenn went on to serve four terms as a U.S. senator and became the oldest person to return to space when he was in his 70s two decades ago.

Glenn died this December 8^th, 2016 at age 95 – one of the last of an older generation prototypes of the all-American hero.

News of his death reminded me of watching his rocket ship leave Cape Canaveral in Florida on an old black & white TV set in a grade school classroom back in Welland the morning that it happened, and it also had me whispering a few words to the late David Bowie’s song Space Oddity –

“For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do.”

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 “A politician thinks of the next election. A leader thinks of the next generation.” – Bernie Sanders