Zero G and I feel fine

[Malintent]

John Glenn, the first person to reach space, died yesterday at age 95.
He was the first, and also more recently, the oldest, person to orbit the Earth.
He was a spiritual person who valued the pursuit of endeavors greater than individual self-interest.
He risked his life for what he thought was important.

"Zero G, and I feel fine" was what he was quoted as saying when he reached an orbital trajectory around Earth.

Here is how I am honoring him... By playing a video game / space program simulator, to learn a little orbital mechanics and "experience" some of the excitement and danger around our first baby steps into the new frontier.

Check out Kerbal Space Program https://kerbalspaceprogram.com
Or on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

 

[James Brown]

Nice tribute. I've read that some people have switched to aerospace careers thanks to the Kerbal Space Program, something that I think John Glenn would have appreciated.

 

[J842P]

John Glenn, the first person to reach space, died yesterday at age 95.
He was the first, and also more recently, the oldest, person to orbit the Earth.
He was a spiritual person who valued the pursuit of endeavors greater than individual self-interest.
He risked his life for what he thought was important.

"Zero G, and I feel fine" was what he was quoted as saying when he reached an orbital trajectory around Earth.

Here is how I am honoring him... By playing a video game / space program simulator, to learn a little orbital mechanics and "experience" some of the excitement and danger around our first baby steps into the new frontier.

Check out Kerbal Space Program https://kerbalspaceprogram.com
Or on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

I'm a fan of Glenn, but he was neither the first person to reach space nor the first person to orbit the Earth. That was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

 

[fromderinside]

I'm a fan of Glenn, but he was neither the first person to reach space nor the first person to orbit the Earth. That was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Glen was the second American into space after Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961 in a Mercury capsule.

 

[Elixir]

I'm a fan of Glenn, but he was neither the first person to reach space nor the first person to orbit the Earth. That was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Glen was the second American into space after Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961 in a Mercury capsule.

And the first American to complete an orbit...
We should give credit to Phileas Fogg though.

 

[HelixSpiral]

I'm a fan of Glenn, but he was neither the first person to reach space nor the first person to orbit the Earth. That was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Glen was the second American into space after Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961 in a Mercury capsule.

Third. Gus Grissom repeated Shepard's flight later in 1961 before Glenn orbited in 1962.

 

[Malintent]

ok, correction... John Glenn was the first to ORBIT Earth, not just reach a sub-orbital trajectory.
I thought the Russians sent a dog on the first orbit (and abandoned it there), not a man.

 

[James Brown]

ok, correction... John Glenn was the first to ORBIT Earth, not just reach a sub-orbital trajectory.
I thought the Russians sent a dog on the first orbit (and abandoned it there), not a man.

As long as we're being pedantic, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. He wasn't the first person in space nor the first person to orbit the Earth--both of those records are held by the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin. Nor was Glenn the first American in space--he was preceded by Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom who made sub-orbital flights.

Unfortunately, the details get muddled and lots of people call him the first man in space.

The Soviets did indeed send up a dog several years before Gagarin's orbital flight. Laika was the first animal to orbit the Earth on November 3, 1957, presumably from overheating due to equipment failure, but no one knew how to deorbit spacecraft at the time, so she wouldn't have survived the trip anyway.