Let's keep reaching for the stars

Published: February 20, 2012

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It's hard to imagine now, with an international space station crew permanently in orbit, but it was only 50 years ago that the first American reached orbit.

Two Russians already had reached orbit and two Americans had made sub-orbital flights into space by the time John Glenn was launched into orbit on Feb. 20, 1962. But it was his flight in the tiny Mercury capsule Friendship 7 - three orbits of the planet over four hours and 56 minutes - that captured the public's imagination and vaulted the United States past the Soviet Union for dominance in space.

Mr. Glenn already was a hero by the time he joined the space program, having flown 59 combat missions as a fighter pilot in World War II and another 63 during the Korean War. But his space flight made him a household name and helped drive America's successful race to the moon.

A longtime U.S. senator from Ohio, Mr. Glenn also became the oldest person ever to fly in space, at 77, during his last year in office. He convinced NASA to use his space shuttle flight to study the effects of space flight and weightlessness on an older person.

Today, at 90, Mr. Glenn remains a tireless advocate for space exploration and for manned missions.

It remains an open question whether the United States ever can recapture the sort of magic created by Mr. Glenn and his colleagues. (He and M. Scott Carpenter are the only survivors of the original Mercury astronauts.) The space shuttle fleet has been retired and the United States now pays Russia to lift American astronauts to duty on the space station. Unmanned American planetary missions continue to produce spectacular discoveries, but the future of the manned program is very much unsettled.

It is a fine thing that Mr. Glenn has survived to mark the 50th anniversary of his orbital flight, which had a huge role in making the United States the dominant power of the last century in technology and global influence. It will be fitting if the observance leads to a rededication to even greater American achievements in space.

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