US space tech comes of age!

By Kerry Sheridan — John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, but for a solid hour of that journey, NASA feared he was about to die in a blazing fireball. All of the original crew of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7, risked life and limb in order to explore the frontier of space, and some died in the effort. The death on Thursday at 95 of John Glenn, the last of the so-called Original Seven chosen as NASA’s first astronaut corps in 1959, reminded Americans just how far the US space programme has come.
“Back before any human had actually gone into space the doctors weren’t sure they would survive,” said space policy expert John Logsdon.
Monkeys and mice were blasted off on rockets. They often died.
A chimpanzee blasted off aboard the new Mercury 7 rocket in 1961 and survived, offering reassurance that astronauts might be okay.
Then, Russia launched Yuri Gagarin, the first man ever in space, in 1961, and his survival took some concern away from the US crew.
But not much.
Rockets teetered on liftoff, exploded over the launch pad and collapsed into smoke and flames with jarring regularity.
“Many of us were sceptical and deeply concerned about NASA’s plans to launch the Navy test pilot Alan Shepard on what would be our first space flight,” wrote news anchor Walter Cronkite in his 1997 book, A Reporter’s Life.
He recalled watching those explosions and described NASA as making a “feeble attempt” to catch up with the Soviets in the space race.
Shepard survived his 1961 trip to become the first American in space — although not orbit, which was Glenn’s feat.
In 1967, a spark ignited a fire inside the Apollo 1 capsule while it sat on the launchpad, incinerating all three men on board.
Glenn’s launch in 1962 went smoothly, but as he circled the Earth three times, mission control picked up a signal that suggested his landing bag had deployed prematurely.
Charles Murray, co-author of the book Apollo: The Race to the Moon said in a 1989 interview with C-SPAN that “they were really convinced for about an hour that they were going to lose that guy.”The glitch could have meant the heat shield would not work, “and he was going to get burned to a crisp,” he added. After Glenn’s successful splashdown, the staff at mission control celebrated by passing out American flags and lighting cigars. On Friday, US President Barack Obama ordered all American flags at public buildings to be flown at half-mast on the day of Glenn’s funeral as a mark of respect. —AFP