John Glenn, First American To Orbit The Earth, Dies At 95 (npr.org) 113
BenBoy writes: John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 -- December 8, 2016) was an American aviator, engineer, astronaut, and United States Senator from Ohio. He was one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA to become America's first astronauts and fly the Project Mercury spacecraft. He passed away today at age 95.
Godspeed, John Glenn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Godspeed, John Glenn (Score:5, Insightful)
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Some people waste their lives, or never really accomplish anything. John Glenn was not one of those people.
I heard a variation on that that went something like, "Most people wonder if they've made the world better than they left it, a Marine is not one of those people."
Semper Fi, Colonel, you are relieved of your duties.
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"Most people wonder if they've made the world better than they left it, a Marine is not one of those people."
Marines kill and destroy without asking questions. Whether that makes the world better or worse is out of their control.
You can be a hero and kill a hundred Japs, only to capture an airstrip that is never used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Or worse yet, be on the aggressor side and lose.
Re:Godspeed, John Glenn (Score:4, Insightful)
He was the meat that willingly crawled into said tin can. And you?
Re:Godspeed, John Glenn (Score:5, Funny)
Mind you, where several of said tin cans had exploded, crashed, or otherwise failed in a (fatal to the meat inside) way.
Re:Godspeed, John Glenn (Score:5, Insightful)
I assume you were also a US Senator, an officer in the USMC, a US Navy test pilot and flight instructor, and a war veteran. This short list of accomplishments is far beyond being "meat in a can".
He was also the first person to complete a transcontinental flight that averaged supersonic speeds. He had to refuel at subsonic speeds but the average speed through the coast to coast flight exceeded that of a typical rifle bullet. That is not an easy thing to do and is something for the record books.
He is also the oldest person to date to go into space. He was a "payload specialist" where one could argue he was the payload. You might argue this accomplishment is simply being "meat in a tin can" again but just living to be 77 is an accomplishment, and he went into space at that age. If you live to be that old, and are willing to climb into a tin can that accelerates at about 9Gs, and live to talk about it for nearly 20 years then you might have some standing to claim this is nothing to celebrate.
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He was the meat in an automated tin can that went to the upper atmosphere. Some accomplishment.
The tin can malfunctioned after the first orbit. He manually flew it for two more (of 7 planned). A little more than "meat," I'd say.
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He was the meat in a semi-automated tin can that left the atmosphere and orbited the Earth three times before returning after nearly 5 hours.
If you are going to denigrate someone's legacy, at least take the time to target their achievements and not those of another (Alan Shepard, who, incidentally was the first person to manually control their "automated" spacecraft orientation).
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He was the meat in an automated tin can that went to the upper atmosphere. Some accomplishment.
You don't even deserve to breathe.
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He was the meat in an automated tin can that went to the upper atmosphere. Some accomplishment.
John Glenn was a great man. You, on the other hand, are nothing.
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I find your lack of faith disturbing.
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RIP
For some reason, when I first saw this, I was thinking of Buzz Aldrin, who left Antarctica after getting sick some days ago.
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Godspeed, and may Perth light your way on your final journey.
I remember... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember as a kid of 5 in kindergarten seeing crude animation live on TV as John Glenn orbited the earth. I also remember his return flight on the Shuttle when he was in his late '70s. In between he was a Senator. What a magnificent American and human being. Why don't we seem to see more of those types of people in public life today?
Re:I remember... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I remember... (Score:5, Funny)
balls of steel.
That's a common misconception. His balls were actually made from glass fibers embedded in a custom high-temperature resin.
Re:I remember... (Score:4, Insightful)
balls of steel.
That's a common misconception. His balls were actually made from glass fibers embedded in a custom high-temperature resin.
With a Mylar skin.
Re:I remember... (Score:5, Insightful)
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It is worth noting that many of the students demanding their "safe spaces" have been the "mysogynistic racist bigoted homophobic nazis" objecting to teachers challenging their worldview:
http://www.revelist.com/us-news/liberal-professors-the-watchlist/5965
The "safe spaces" idea is a generic rejection of challenge, and is not really associated with one worldview or another.
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Or expose college students to ideas that they disagree with without also providing them a safe space and reassuring them that those nasty people over there are definitely mysogynistic racist bigoted homophobic nazis and nobody likes those guys at all and you're so special, little snowflake.
Hear hear!
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Because the public doesn't care about them. There's no space race going on today. There are no commies to compete with. There are no new worlds to explore.
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Nonsense, you have new heroes. Fine upstanding American consumers to look up to like the Kardashians and Trump - did you see his diamond encrusted gold door? Keep drinking the Kool aid dummies.
Does insight have to involve a deeper truth? (Score:2)
Most insightful of the comments that got the mod. More deserving if you considered the topic a bit more broadly, for example by appealing to the orange counterexample who is about to occupy the White House.
I think the answers to your question largely revolve around economic models. Or you might prefer to see the situation in terms of the "military-industrial complex" that Ike warned us about, but I still think that's just another version of the money thing. I don't want to call it a "money problem" because
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he risked his life on what was little more than a modified icbm; one that could explode if you looked at it funny.
Space cowboy (Score:1)
Misses the big points. (Score:5, Informative)
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Health benefits of leaving the planet confirmed!
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Health benefits of leaving the planet confirmed!
Lived to 95. That ain't so bad.
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Plus the oldest person to be shot into space, and the only payload specialist (on that flight) that I know of that was his own payload (his job was to see how space flight affects old people).
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And that makes him a bad astronaut?
Same logic as getting a blowjob makes a bad president...
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Wow, the troll actually contributes! Wonders will never cease!
No, you didn't. You never have. Stop being a moron, it gets old really, really fast.
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Full life (Score:1)
Few people could dream of comparing to what he accomplished, exploring to the very end..
This was a hero (Score:5, Interesting)
John Glenn was a U.S. Marine fighter pilot who flew 59 combat missions over the South Pacific during WWII and 63 combat missions during the Korean War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism or extraordinary achievement six times! In Korea, he got the nickname "magnet ass" because he attracted so much enemy flak on his missions.
Oh, and then he went on to become a test pilot, the first American to orbit the Earth, a U.S. senator and then the oldest man to go into space.
He stopped flying planes at age 90.
"The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel." John Glenn.
If you're looking for someone children can look up to, he's it.
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From YOUR link:
"Senators Glenn and McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment"."
Apparently there wasn't enough evidence that suggested he had actually done anything. This was in the days before scandals were overlooked so easily as well, so it's likely there really wasn't any evidence.
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If you're looking for someone children can look up to, he's it.
Absolutely. Someone that anyone can look up to. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem that we are able to make people like that anymore.
God speed, John Glenn (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I was fortunate to have met him a few year ago (Score:5, Interesting)
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You misunderstood what the security guard meant. Glenn was the oldest person to ever go into space when he flew aboard Discovery on STS-95 [nasa.gov] in 1998. He was 77.
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You misunderstood what the security guard meant. Glenn was the oldest person to ever go into space when heÂflew aboard Discovery on STS-95Âin 1998. He was 77.
I understood him perfectly well, and knew exactly what he meant. It's just a difference in the way different generations think of someone. It's similar to how people remember Ron Glass. Even though I watched Firefly, I remember him more from watching him play Detective Ron Harris on Barney Miller. My younger friends have no idea what Barney Miller was.
People in space (Score:1)
Pffft. That's preposterous! Another step closer to moving past this 'round-earth' propaganda that's been spreading since the 60s.
Wake up sheeple!!!
planet earth is blue (Score:1)
...
He should have stayed out of politics... (Score:3)
You will love this story (Score:3, Funny)
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Has anything happened this year that hasn't been an unmitigated disaster?
The Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter.
Scientists found the gene that is linked to ALS, which gets us one step closer to eliminating it.
Scientists also got us one step closer to a cure for HIV in 2016.
Cleveland finally won a championship in a major-league sport. Scientists predict this will not happen again for ~750 million years.
That's all I got.
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Re:2016 (Score:5, Informative)
Has anything happened this year that hasn't been an unmitigated disaster?
Cubs win world series.
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Against Miami?
You Insensitive Clod! (Score:2)
Cubs win world series.
I'm from Cleveland.
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Ah well, you have this one second hand anecdotal story, so clearly you must be right! Why not say he molested kittens in a pizzeria, just to make your journey to the fake news complete.