John Glenn

John Glenn (HMJPE)

Location: Dayton, OH 45402 Montgomery County
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Country: United States of America
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N 39° 46.103', W 84° 11.199'

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1962

— Inventing Flight: The Centennial Celebration Series #9) —

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
-William Shakespeare


In the midst of the Cold War, the United States was losing face to the Soviet Union's superior space program. The Soviets had already put cosmonauts in space and were looking toward the moon. In the summer of 1961, with only one fifteen-minute space flight under the nation's belt, President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It was the tallest order the nation had faced since World War II, and the first step was to place an astronaut in orbit.

For this initial step, an Ohioan would once again emerge at the forefront of aviation pioneers. John Glenn was assigned the task of piloting the first attempt to orbit the Earth. American scientists could only guess at what effect zero gravity would have on the human body. Could a person breathe properly, coordinate movement, swallow food? Glenn would find out.

On the morning of February 20, 1962, Friendship 7 lifted off. The craft glided into orbit around the Earth, and during nearly five hours in space Glenn watched the sun rise three times. He suffered no ill effects from weightlessness. He splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas where he was picked up 21 minutes later by a U.S. naval ship. The flight was a complete success.
Details
HM NumberHMJPE
Tags
Year Placed2003
Placed ByInventing Flight and Dayton Power & Light Company Foundation
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, October 3rd, 2014 at 7:34am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)16S E 740973 N 4405836
Decimal Degrees39.76838333, -84.18665000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 39° 46.103', W 84° 11.199'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds39° 46' 6.18" N, 84° 11' 11.94" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)937
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 1964 Great Miami River Recreational Trail, Dayton OH 45402, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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