Thanks chessplayer.
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Posted on 02/20/2012 9:07:53 AM PST by chessplayer
Fifty years ago, the success of the Russian space program in putting a man into orbit had Americans in a panic. The first two Mercury missions into space used the Redstone rocket, which was only powerful enough for suborbital flight, and the US risked being seen as incapable of competing with Communists on missile technology and space exploration. NASA asked John Glenn to strap himself into the more powerful Atlas SLV-3 rocket, a family of rockets with a spotty success record, to allow America to catch up in a hurry to the Soviets. Fifty years ago today, Glenn made the first three American orbits of the Earth and re-energized the American pursuit of space flight:
John Glenn is now just a creepy old man
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Back then John Glenn was a hero. Now he is just a sell out to Bill Clinton. John should just go away.
Yep. What a shame he turned out to be such a corrupt weasel. And look at Mark Kelly. Rats of a feather.
Whitey showing off. How did this improve the self-esteem of Muslims?
And today, we have no ability to launch a manned spacecraft. Worse yet, we have to hitch a ride with the Russians.
Back then this country had dreams.
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And didn’t apologize about its triumphs, ambition and the simple fact that we were a meritocracy, (by far, the most just and fair in human history), as the Founders clearly intended.
Didn't you know that blacks reached the moon first?
When I was in civil service we would every now and then come across a person who was clearly moving up in his job with no particular reason why.
The expression was that “he had a sponsor”, meaning someone on high was seeing to it that he made.
When I first started hearing about John Glen, that same thought occurred to me. I remember he was on “name that tune”, before he was selected to the astronaut program.
I also recall that he was not the first man in space, he was not the first American in space, he was not even the first man to orbit the earth. yet he got popularized far more than the others. If one asked the ordinary American who was the first American in space, most of them would say “John Glen”.
There was a brief spot on our local TV station about Glen where they said he was the first American in space. It was understandable, he got all the publicity.
“There was a brief spot on our local TV station about Glen where they said he was the first American in space.”
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If you ask many Americans about “space” they would probably confuse it with “Facebook”.
Alan Shepard? Yuri Gagarin? Utterly meaningless names....
And today, we have no ability to launch a manned spacecraft.....................That we know of. I have a notion that the US has something far better than a shuttle in the works. Lots of secrets out there, big ones.Untill recently I was unaware VP Trueman had no knowledge that we even had an A bomb untill after FDR died and he took office.
Even back then those of us who followed the Mercury program realized that the guys who took the real risks were Shepard and Grissom who did the two sub-orbital flights as proof of concept. While Glenn actually orbited the earth, he was the first american and not the first human to orbit. His flight was the next logical step in the manned flight program sequence.
His flight was overly hyped by VP LBJ who took over the program oversight from former VP Nixon. The extensive hype was done for political gain by JFK/LBJ.
Aside from that, he was a longterm democrat criminal. One of the last insults to the space program was when he was selected to make the shuttle flight as a less than physically fit and no longer qualified pilot over Chuck Yeager who was still fit, the same age and still a qualified pilot. Again, hype to promote democrats.
This morning in an interview, Glenn incorrectly blaimed W for the end of the Shuttle program.
In a military context “sponsored” unqualified officers were also very identifiable and all too frequent. They were way too often promoted to colonel and to the general officer ranks with no ability to lead or perform.
In Glenn’s case, his sponsor was definitely LBJ and the democrat party. NASA played to the theme to keep the money coming in for the programs but the power was LBJ.
“This morning in an interview, Glenn incorrectly blaimed W for the end of the Shuttle program.”
Incorrect factually, but he was reading lines from a script. This act of the play is “Re-Elect Obama”, and one way to do that is to deflect blame by lying.
Bush, though, did nothing to extend the Shuttle program, which was winding down with no next step.
Good point, Alan Shepard was the first “Astro-American”...
I went to school early that day so I could watch the launch on a TV set placed in the window of a hardware store on Jamaica Ave. in NYC. Cold, rainy morning...I got soaked... but it was worth it.
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