Login: GUEST @ JH4XSY.14.JNET1.JPN.AS [Tsuchiura]
home | newest check | boards | help index | log | ps | userlogin | send sysop | slog | status forward | bcm news | users | version | remove cookie
KF5JRV > TODAY 20.02.25 17:40l 20 Lines 2678 Bytes #7 (0) @ WW
BID : 4851_KF5JRV
Subj: Today in History - Feb 20
Path: JH4XSY<IW0QNL<SR1BSZ<EA2RCF<LU9DCE<GB7YEW<VE3CGR<WW4BSA<N3HYM<K5DAT<
KF5JRV
Sent: 250220/0812Z 4851@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.23
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.
Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America窶冱 first astronauts. A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.
Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. 窶廨us窶� Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov. In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7. In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted further ahead in the space race when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits. As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.
It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television. After separating from its launching rocket, the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, 窶廚apsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous.窶�
During Friendship 7窶�s first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule窶冱 tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule窶冱 air-conditioning system. Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7窶�s automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
前のメール | 次のメール