Godspeed John Glenn: Remembering His 1962 Heroics

The story of John Glenn's greatest moment doesn't start with John Glenn.

It begins Oct. 4, 1957, when Americans collectively gasped at the Soviet Union's technological breakthrough called Sputnik. The 183-pound satellite brought panic into American homes, fear that the USSR could now launch ballistic and nuclear missiles at both Europe and the U.S. Americans felt exposed and vulnerable. Every time that glowing dot rushed across the night sky, Americans feared their way of life was at risk.

President Dwight Eisenhower responded by ordering the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Werner von Braun and his team of scientists launched the Explorer, the first American satellite in space.

Yet, the Soviets stayed a step ahead of the Americans. In 1959, they launched Luna 2, the first probe to make contact with the moon. Then, in 1961, they sent Yuri Gagarin into space. Gagarin piloted a chunky spaceship called the Vostok 1 into orbit and became the first man to circle the Earth. Again, American fears peaked.

"I can't think of a time where we were that afraid, even at Pearl Harbor, even at 9/11," documentary filmmaker David Hoffman told CBS. "This was a frightening time."

Enter John Glenn.

The daredevil pilot that first achieved supersonic travel across the United States (going from Los Angeles to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds) would join six other men to become the Mercury Seven, the nation's first collection of astronauts.

Perhaps the most famous of the seven, Glenn would not be the first of them in space. That honor fell to Alan Shepard who made a suborbital mission in May 1961. Yet none of the Mercury 7 achieved the fame and notoriety that Glenn did. Perhaps it was his noted eloquence, or his Midwestern sturdiness, but America latched onto the boy from New Concord, Ohio, in a way that dwarfed the other astronauts.

President John F. Kennedy saw his nation falling behind, saw the USSR routinely beating America into space. So, on May 25, 1961, he asked Congress for $7 to $9 billion for the space program. He said, "This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

To Americans, the moon was an impossible dream. Shepard had just become the first American into space. We were unable to achieve orbit. There was no way for the nation to suddenly jump to the moon.

Kennedy had publicly challenged the Soviet dominance of space and was urging his countrymen forward, promising dominion of the stars. Yet the Soviets were the ones sending men (and dogs) into space. The Soviets were the ones circling our blue planet. America seemed helplessly mired in second place, unable to match the feat of having a man orbit our planet.

Glenn was going to change that.

In the middle of winter in 1962, Americans collectively gathered around their television sets and radios. They were listening for the launch of Friendship 7, the aircraft piloted by astronaut John Glenn. America had not been able to place a man in orbit around Earth, and the mission that day was designed to change that.

Glenn waited for hours for takeoff inside of a crammed capsule atop a rocket. Even as the minutes ticked by, he claimed, doubt never entered his equation.

“You fear the least what you know the most about,” he said about his mission.

And Glenn succeeded with flying colors.

For four hours, 55 minutes and 23 second, Glenn spun around Earth. He iconically said, "Zero-G and I feel fine," when gravity fled his cabin and the speed of cosmic travel came in.

His pioneering trip wasn't just full of cool quotes. Glenn's feat required an incredible bit of piloting. Following his first successful orbit around the planet, a yaw attitude jet clogged. That meant Glenn had to abandon autopilot mechanisms and utilize the manual electrical fly-by-wire system. He was travelling at speeds of 17,000 miles per hour.

His re-entry did produce fear in the Ohioan. As fire encompassed his ship and chunks of metal flaked away, Glenn would later write that he feared death was coming for him. He found comfort in knowing that his fate was out of his hands.

"I knew that if that was really happening, it would all be over shortly, and there was nothing I could do about it," he would write later.

Glenn returned to Earth in a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, about 800 miles from Bermuda. He was picked up by the American Navy and sent a message over the radio, saying, "My condition is good, but that was a real fireball, boy.”

He was welcomed back to the U.S. with the Space Congressional Medal of Honor and a ticker tape parade, the nation celebrating the man who had allowed them to look up at the stars and feel awe, not fear. He became a national hero. His success pointed Americans toward the moon.

He remained a hero and a dedicated public servant the rest of his life. After being told he was too valuable as a hero to risk another trip into space, Glenn spent 25 years in the Senate, serving the people of Ohio.

But Glenn would not be deterred in his desire to go back into space. In 1999, he became the oldest person into the cosmos at age 77. He said at a press conference at the time that "old people have dreams and desires, too." He urged others to not resign themselves to beds and couches and to go full-throttle after their goals.

After retiring from the Senate, he launched the John Glenn Institute for Public Service at Ohio State University and spent his last years working with students.

Glenn lived more in one life than any article, or book, can capture. He was an icon and American hero. He was the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts who bravely launched themselves into the cosmos on behalf of every American. In the words of President Barack Obama, "Godspeed, John Glenn."

Photo from Glenn's 1962 Orbit, Courtesy of NASA