John Glenn at age 77. Credit score: NASA.
With tens of millions of tourists annually, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, positioned north of downtown Houston, Texas, is among the many United States’ busiest aviation hubs. And in 1998, it introduced collectively an aged couple and an aged astronaut, every about to embark on yet one more nice journey.
Thirty-six years after turning into the primary American to orbit Earth, John Glenn — Marine fighter pilot, Title That Tune contestant, Ohio senator, and one-time presidential candidate — was making ready to blast off in house shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. Aged 77 on the time, the flight was set to make Glenn the oldest human to ever orbit Earth.
“You’ve modified my life,” mentioned the previous man on the airport.
“How’s that?” requested Glenn.
“All my life, I used to be fascinated by Mount Kilimanjaro,” the person replied. “I examine it and wished to climb it. Then I received married, we had youngsters, and I stored placing it off. Then my spouse informed me I used to be too previous.”
The person’s spouse rolled her eyes, a nervous smile cleaving aside her lips.
“But when John Glenn can return to house at age 77,” the old-timer continued, “I can climb Kilimanjaro. We’ve received tickets to Africa subsequent month.”
Glenn, who died in 2016, was touched by this story of a tenacious human spirit breaking society’s age-biased glass ceiling.
“The thrill surrounding my return to house,” he wrote in John Glenn: A Memoir (Bantum, 2000), “was attributable to that redefinition of what individuals might count on of the aged and what the aged might count on of themselves.”
Opening act: The primary American to orbit Earth
Glenn was America’s oldest astronaut not as soon as, however twice. Strapped into the tiny Friendship 7 capsule, he first circled the globe thrice throughout a drama-filled 5 hours on Feb. 20, 1962. Forty years previous on the time, that flight made Glenn the primary quadragenarian astronaut.
The report didn’t final, nonetheless. Deke Slayton grew to become the primary over-50 spacefarer throughout the Apollo-Soyuz mission in July 1975, and Story Musgrave did likewise for over-60s on house shuttle Columbia in late 1996.
John Glenn turns into the oldest individual to orbit Earth
Glenn’s belated second act on this lifelong defiance of limits started in 1995. Perusing NASA medical literature, he seen that a number of physiological illnesses peculiar to astronauts — osteoporosis, muscle wastage, stability issues, weakened immune programs — mirror these usually seen within the aged. He puzzled if flying an older astronaut may yield insights that would profit individuals on Earth. And naturally, he was keen to function the check topic himself.
A promising assembly with then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, in addition to Glenn’s help for President Invoice Clinton’s 1996 re-election marketing campaign, earned the astronaut two highly effective endorsements. Whereas on the marketing campaign path in Ohio, as an example, Clinton even pulled Glenn apart. “I hope that shuttle flight works out for you,” the president grinned.
Along with gaining government help, Glenn was additionally required to cross a full medical examination given by John Eisold, attending doctor of Congress, which discovered nothing to preclude the astronaut’s return to house.
Elated, Glenn once more requested Goldin for a shuttle seat. The administrator agreed on two situations: The flight have to be scientifically worthwhile, and Glenn should cross all exams required by active-duty astronauts, most of whom have been half his age.
Goldin’s warning was not unreasonable. NASA was roundly roasted by politicians, press, and public alike for flying congressmen, senators, and a Saudi prince on the house shuttle, in addition to schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who died on Challenger’s ultimate, deadly flight. However by late 1997, rumor swirled that Glenn’s shuttle mission was within the bag.
Nonetheless, his household took longer to persuade. “Over my useless physique,” his spouse Annie snapped when she first heard the information.
A flight to recollect: John Glenn and STS-95
After a whirlwind eight months of coaching, Discovery’s STS-95 crew of 5 People (together with Glenn), a Japanese surgeon, and Pedro Duque, the primary Spanish astronaut, reached the launch pad on Oct 29, 1998. 5 of them have been solely youngsters when Glenn first flew to house aboard Friendship 7 in 1962, and Duque had not even been born but.
All however Glenn and Duque had flown within the shuttle earlier than, affording scope for a prank or two. As an example, Commander Curt Brown gave the shuttle veterans mock boarding passes earlier than the flight, which they dutifully produced from their pockets. This led Glenn and Duque to change nervous glances. Earlier than they may utter a phrase, nonetheless, huge grins creased the faces of their crewmates.
“We had bitten, hook, line, and sinker,” Glenn later wrote. “Pedro and I had our initiation ceremony.”
In the course of the countdown, Venture Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter spoke with the STS-95 astronauts over the radio. Years earlier, Carpenter had wished Glenn bon voyage earlier than Friendship 7. Now he reprised that function for STS-95.
“It appears applicable,” Carpenter mentioned, “to say to the shuttle Discovery crew, good luck, have a protected flight, and to say as soon as once more: Godspeed, John Glenn.”
Cheered on by 250,000 well-wishers, together with President Clinton himself, Discovery severed the shackles of Earth at 2:19 p.m. ET on Oct. 29, 1998. The crew spent the following 9 days in orbit finishing up a slew of analysis experiments, a few of which have been designed to check growing older with the uncomfortable side effects of spaceflight.
By all accounts, the STS-95 astronauts cherished having Glenn aboard the shuttle with them. Scott Parazynski, as an example, in contrast the mission to climbing Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary or taking part in baseball with Babe Ruth.
What did John Glenn’s record-breaking flight train us?
After the flight, critics remained unconvinced {that a} singular data-point (Glenn) was sufficient to ignite significant analysis into growing older. Some queried the necessity for even older astronauts, whereas others branded STS-95 as a publicity stunt of low scientific advantage that rashly endangered a U.S. nationwide hero. Unsurprisingly, Glenn was wont to disagree.
For 9 days throughout the flight, the crew carried out 80 medical, crystal progress, cell biology, and astronomy experiments. They deployed and recaptured a photo voltaic physics satellite tv for pc with Discovery’s robotic arm. And so they examined {hardware} that might be used to service the Hubble Area Telescope.
Glenn was the topic of a number of research, his physique glued with electrodes and his head adorned with a skullcap designed to watch brainwaves, coronary heart charge, core physique temperature, and circulatory/regulatory programs. He offered 48 urine and 17 blood samples throughout the mission. (As a result of STS-95 flew over Halloween, Parazynski loved donning a set of Depend Dracula fangs and pouncing upon Glenn for blood-takes with “maniacal” regularity.)
Age is aware of no bounds
Returning dwelling on Nov. 7, Glenn’s ultimate boundary-pushing flight was an entire triumph, finally proving that aged house explorers can nonetheless make main impacts.
Between 2001 and 2023, 10 astronauts over 60 years previous visited the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) – and two of them even commanded it. In spring 2024, NASA’s Mike Barratt will fly to house at age 65, which can make him the oldest station crewmember to hold out a long-duration spaceflight.
In suborbital house, different information have fallen like ninepins. In July 2021, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, the primary octogenarian house traveler, to the sting of house (although not orbit). Three months later, 90-year-old William Shatner, who discovered performing fame as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, did likewise, making him the primary nonagenarian spaceman.
John Glenn’s age-defying spaceflight simply 25 years in the past, in addition to the more moderen achievements by different growing older astronauts, serve to remind us that age is yet one more glass ceiling which might and have to be shattered.
