GLENN'S SPACE FLIGHT A-OK UNIVERSITY Daily hansan
59th Year, No.86
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Dramatic History Unfolds on Wire
EDITORS:
AT 7:25 A.M., EST, THE COUNTDOWN ON THE GLENN FLIGHT WAS 5 MINUS 60 MINUTES AND HOLDING. THIS IS A COMBINED WEATHER AND REPAIR HOLD, LENGTH ABOUT 30 MINUTES.
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1962
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FEB. 20—(UPI)—THICKENING CLOUDS OVER THIS SPACEPORT TODAY THREATENED TO CURTAIL OR POSTPONE ASTRONAUT JOHN H. GLENN JR.S ORBITAL FLIGHT AROUND THE EARTH.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FEB. 20—(UPI)—A THREATENING CLOUD COVER BEGAN TO THIN OUT AT THIS SPACEPORT TODAY AND HOPES ROSE FOR LAUNCHING ASTRONAUT JOHN H. GLENN JR. INTO ORBIT.
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AT 8:58 A.M., EST... THE GLENN COUNTDOWN WAS T MINUS
22 MINUTES AND HOLDING.
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AT 9:39 A.M., EST, THE COUNTDOWN WAS T MINUS $ 6 \frac{1}{2} $ MINUTES AND HOLDING.
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THE COUNTDOWN RESUMED AT 9:41 A.M., EST, AT T MINUS $ \frac{6}{2} $ MINUTES AND COUNTING.
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AT 9:46 A.M., EST, THE COUNTDOWN REACHED T MINUS ONE MINUTE AND COUNTING.
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30 SECONDS
19 SECONDS AND HOLDING
10 SECONDS
5
IGNITION
LIFTOFF
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CAPE CANAVERAL—FEB. 20—(UPI)—THE ATLAS ROCKET CARRYING ASTRONAUT JOHN GLENN LIFTED FROM ITS LAUNCH PAD AT 9:48 A.M. EST TODAY.
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THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATON (NASA) ANNOUNCED AT 10 A.M., 13 MINUTES AFTER LIFTOFF, THAT GLENN HAD ACHIEVED ORBITAL FLIGHT.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FEB. 20—(UPI)—ASTRONAUT JOHN GLENN TODAY FINISHED HIS FIRST FULL ORBIT OF THE EARTH, BREAKING A MAJOR SPACE BARRIER FOR THE UNITED STATES.
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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE FIRST FULL GLOBAL ROUNDTRIP CAME AT 11:24 A.M. EST.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FEB. 20—(UPI)—JOHN GLENN COMPLETED A SECOND ORBIT IN HIS TRAIL-BLAZING SPACE TRIP.
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Launch Success Brings Relief To University
General sighs of relief and a sense of accomplishment settled over the campus this morning as success of Glenn's flight appeared certain.
Students and faculty crowded into the Student Union this morning where two television sets were tuned in to the flight. The main lobby was solid with spectators at blast-off time.
Others stuck to TV sets at home many missed classes—to watch the historic flight.
MOST REACTION indicated that merely getting him off the ground was a success in itself.
Robert Whaley. Lawrence senior said, "I'm glad he's up—I hope he comes down safely."
Success of the flight in its early stages was best summed up by Michael Su, Formoso graduate student.
"I think it is an excellent scientific success," Su said, and that it "would add to American prestige."
JOHN SHIELDS. Kansas City graduate student, said, "Since I am an aeronautical engineering student, I have been looking forward to this for some time. I think it is an accomplishment of long years of effort, and I hope he gets down successfully. It definitely adds to American prestige."
Vicki Allen, Hutchinson sophomore, thought it would help our standing in the space race.
Tse Hao Tcheng, graduate student from Vientiane, Laos, when asked his reaction to the latest space shot success said, "I was very happy to hear about that."
F. C. BATES, ASSOCIATE professor of aeronautical engineering, said his immediate reaction was "a heartfelt sigh of relief."
"This is the beginning of a wonderful era in space technology. From here we will advance to manned flight to the moon, Venus and Mars. From the simple orbital space capsule we will advance to space craft that will moneuver and land much as conventional aircraft."
"By 1970, personnel requirements for engineers and scientists in space technology will be 70 per cent short of the estimated number needed," he said.
With the success of Glenn's launching, Prof. Bates pointed out the increased demand for trained personnel for all phases of the accelerating space program.
Foreign Reaction
Details of the space shot were broadcast around the world and the news of the successful launching was cheered in almost every nation.
Radio Moscow broadcast news of the successful launching within a half hour of takeoff, fast time by Soviet standards for a free world event.
The official Soviet Tass News Agency also carried a report of Glenn's flight at about the same time. A regular television program in Moscow was interrupted for a news bulletin on the flight.
RADIO LIBERTY, which broadcasts to the Soviet Union, and Radio Free Europe, which broadcasts to
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Capsule Lands After 3 Orbits
BULLETIN
CAPE CANAVERAL—(UPI)—THE RECOVERY FLEET TODAY PLUCKED ASTRONAUT JOHN GLENN FROM THE WATER AT 2:01 P.M. LAWRENCE TIME AND REPORTED THAT HIS SPACECRAFT WAS ABOARD THE DESTROYER NOA THREE MINUTES LATER.
CAPE CANAVERAL—(UPI)—John H. Glenn Jr. broke the space trail for the Free World today with a magnificent leap into orbit that carried him three times around the earth to a splash down in the Atlantic about six miles from a recovery ship.
The 40-year-old Marine rose into space atop a flame-spewing Atlas rocket at 8:47 a.m. Lawrence time.
At 1:28 p.m. Lawrence time, 4 hours and 41 minutes later, he had completed the three orbits of his mission.
Diary Relates Day in Life Of Astronaut
CAPE CANAVERAL — (UPI) – Diary of John Glenn's day in space (All times Eastern Standard.)
2:20 a.m. — Awakened by personal physician for a hearty breakfast of two scrambled eggs, filet mignon, orange juice, toast, jelly and a coffee substitute.
3 a.m. — Underwent final physical examination and scientists attached sensors to his body.
4:30 a.m. — DONNED HIS SIL-
very, form-fitting space suit and
had it pressure-checked by techni-
cians.
5:02 a.m. — Emerged from quarters at hanger S and waved three times to a small crowd. Glenn walked 14 steps to a waiting transfer van and slapped a security officer on the shoulder before ducking into van for trip to launching pad.
6:30 a.m. — Entered Friendship 7 space capsule after riding an elevator up his triangular gantry at launching pad 14.
8:25 a.m. — GANTRY WHEELED back, leaving the gleaming white rocket standing alone. Crews started delicate job of fueling Atlas 109D.
9:36 a.m. --- Reported from capsule on pad: "All systems are go."
9:48 a.m. — Belching smoke and fire, the Atlas rose slowly from the pad, climbed straight up into a clear blue sky atop an orange ball of flame, and leveled off toward the East.
9:53 a.m. — More than 100 miles up, reported in loud, clear voice: "I feel fine... The view is tremendous."
10 a.m.—BECAME FIRST AMERican launched into orbit, traveling at about 17,545 miles per hour between 100 and 160 miles above the earth.
10:25 a.m. — Tried his first food in space. Soaring over Kano, Nigeria in a weightless condition, Glenn squirted food into his mouth from a tube.
10:38 a.m. — On darkened, far side of globe reported sighting "bright lights" of city of Perth, Australia. Told ground stations to "thank everybody for turning them on."
10:50 a.m. — GROUND CONTROL said Glenn's heartbeat and respiration were "completely normal" and the astronaut said he was "having no problems."
11:09 a.m. — Friendship 7 passed
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- Ten minutes later his spacecraft's 63-foot main parachute opened at 21,000 feet and dropped the craft and its pilot into the sea.
Recovery forces sighted them at 1:40 p.m. Lawrence time while they were still in the air.
Glenn splashed down at 1:43 p.m.
Lawrence time.
The destroyer Noa, flanking the aircraft carrier Randolph in the main recovery area, estimated it was six miles from the capsule.
GLENN'S TOTAL TIME IN THE sky from launch to splash down was computed at 4 hours and 56 minutes. This was just six minutes more than space officials had estimated before the flight.
The space craft began its descent off the west coast of America when braking rockets fired at 1:20 p.m. CST. The ton-and-a-half cabin arched into dense layers of the atmosphere at an altitude of about 55 miles above the east coast.
In the space of five minutes its speed was cut from about 17,500 to 270 miles an hour, and air friction heated its blunt re-entry heat shield to nearly 3,000 degrees.
GLENN'S OWN COMMENT on his glowing spacecraft was, "boy, that was a real fireball."
In diving back into the atmosphere the astronaut again underwent gravity forces about $7 \frac{1}{2}$ times normal.
Glenn has successfully completed an epochal space mission which made him the first American in orbit.
HIS GIANT ATLAS ROCKET boosted him into a path so nearly perfect—ranging in altitude from 100 to 160 miles—that officials said he could make seven complete orbits.
But they limited his flight to the three planned circuits of the globe.
He rose into the sky at 9:47 a.m. EST and completed his first space circumnavigation of the earth at 11:21 a.m. EST.
The official announcement that Glenn had completed orbit no 2. came at 12:45 p.m. EST.
G L E N N ECSTATICALLY REPORTED he was seeing "tremendous" and "beautiful" views from his capsule as he rode alternately through periods of light and dark.
He also reported "some minor difficulties" with his spacecraft's controls. But he said weighlessness, the common lot of spacemen, disturbed him not a bit and he felt "fine."
The astronaut on his first crossing of southwestern United States saw something he could not explain—thousands of mysterious luminous particles streaming past his Friendship 7 space cabin.
Space officials said Glenn overcame the control difficulties by
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