RIP John Glenn, last of the original seven astronauts

[BillyVance 34]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/astronaut-and-senator-john-glenn-dies-at-age-95-%E2%80%93-columbus-dispatch/ar-AAlkiTd

Just posted... More details will inevitably follow.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[airdvr 210]

Just saw that. Another American hero gone.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Phillbo 11]

God Speed John Glenn. I'm going to watch The Right Stuff this weekend in his honor and because it is a kick ass movie.

[ryoder 1,590]

Damn;
It was just yesterday I saw a news item that he was terribly ill, but I didn't expect him to go this quickly.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[airdvr 210]

I remember when it first came out. I saw it in the theater. Almost 3 hrs. I didn't want it to end. If they had continued with Gemini and Apollo I would have sat there as long as it took.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[akarunway 1]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/12/john-glenn/john-glenn.html#
My dad met him and jfk a couple times. Look up Joe Walker, a NASA test pilot also. Set records in the X-15. 1 Used to come over dor dinner a lot. RIP JOHN AND JOE.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Albert_Walker

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[gunpaq 1]

Inspired a generation.

www.geronimoskydiving.com

[BillyVance 34]

It's interesting. After he flew on his Mercury mission, NASA wouldn't let him fly again because an accident resulting in his death would be bad publicity. But then he got to fly on the shuttle at age 80 or so, because it was good publicity.

Just glad he wasn't on the Challenger's or Discovery's final flights.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[muff528 3]

By the time he was 80, the PR requirements that our astronauts survive their missions had been relaxed.

[brenthutch 444]

MSNBC just referred to him as an "unassuming fighter pilot," is that even a thing?

Godspeed John Glenn

[tbrown 26]

Actually, Glenn did fly on the Discovery, which is now in the Smithsonian. You're thinking of the Columbia as the one that broke up on re-entry.
I had a hand working at General Dynamics, Convair Division, as a Skin & Structures Mechanic in building the Discovery's cargo hold.
I was in the 1st grade when Glenn made his first flight of 3 orbits in 1962. My mom saved my essay that I wrote about what a brave hero John Glenn was. It was written, or rather printed, in pencil on that school paper with the dotted lines in the middle of each line. To this I added my best drawing of a rocket blasting off. Even back then I remember that his mission was scrubbed twice before he finally got off the ground and that there were problems with his re-entry that had the grownups worried (they thought his heat shield had come loose and told him not to jettison his retro rockets after firing).

He was a man who lived long and prospered.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[BillyVance 34]

You're right on the Columbia being the one that broke up on re-entry. My bad. I didn't double check the facts. And I should know this stuff, being from Rocket City, USA (Huntsville, AL).

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[skyjumpenfool 2]

gunpaq

Inspired a generation.

He inspired more than just one generation. Blue Skies!!

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

[Bob_Church 7]

We were blown away with what he did, but I wonder how much more amazed we'd have been with a modern quality video of what he was seeing rather than that fuzzy image we had then.