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I teared up at this bit. The right stuff, indeed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK, I looked it up. Aren't red lights wonderful. It was Vladimir Komarov in '67. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov
Komarov's was particularly sad. He knew he was going to die, and railed at the incompetence of the program engineers during the descent phase that he knew he wouldn't survive. The fact that the main problem was that the parachute straps had been hooked up wrongly was the final (preventable) insult to a brave man. "Gagarin wrote a 10-page memo and gave it to his best friend in the KGB, Venyamin Russayev, but nobody da…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It was a time in America when the future seemed endless, anything was possible. Somewhere between "We choose to go to the moon" and "if you see something, say something" we traded all of our hope and optimism for fear and suspicion. I'm just hoping for hope again.
That's a really simplistic way of thinking about it. The red scare continued through the late 1950s (and the cold war continued for decades -- there was no lack of fear and suspicion). John Glen orbited the earth in 1962, in the middle of all this. The nation doesn't wake up, flip and coin and decide it's either optimistic or fearful one day. You can be scared of some things and optimistic about others. Or both at th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Komarov's was particularly sad. He knew he was going to die, and railed at the incompetence of the program engineers during the descent phase that he knew he wouldn't survive. The fact that the main problem was that the parachute straps had been hooked up wrongly was the final (preventable) insult to a brave man. "Gagarin wrote a 10-page memo and gave it to his best friend in the KGB, Venyamin Russayev, but nobody da…
Where are your story and quotes from? The quotes aren't on the Wikipedia page linked above. I'm not doubting it, I'd just like to read more.
Not sure how valid Gizmodo is as a source, but I have heard many variations of that similar story over the decades.
Those who haven't heard about him should watch "When We Left Earth", a fantastic documentary miniseries about NASA. He was one of the many NASA astronauts interviewed.
I also highly commend and greatly respect him for his efforts in nuclear non-proliferation. I imagine when you've seen earth from the view he had, you can't help seeing how small our differences actually are. That said, he wasn't perfect. His testimony in favor of excluding women from the astronaut program kept them from going on a mission until the 80's. To his credit, by the 1970's he had changed his mind and began supporting a female astronaut (Judith Resnick...interestingly she was recruited into the program by none than Lt. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols ) in her endeavors to join the astronaut program. Ultimately and unfortunately, she was a member of the ill-fated Challenger crew. Glenn gave a touching and inspirational speech at her memorial service that is worth reading: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/memorial.html
Off topic rant: As I hear this news, I'm reminded of the whole Buzz Aldrin dustup. While I'm no advocate of violence, I was inspired when he decked that looney conspiracy theorist who claimed the moon landings were faked. Despite the fact that you can literally shine lasers on the pieces of spacecraft left on the Moon and see the reflections, there are still those forces of ignorance who refuse to accept reality even as it stares them right in the eye. Most people in his position and especially at his age would simply try to avoid that confrontation and be content to let charlatans spread their destructive, nonsensical fictions. John Glenn was not that man. For some reason, that incident is what truly sticks out in my mind about him and I always associate him with this image: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/3779149... It's probably because I associate him with being the last of a dying breed, a modern hero in an increasingly cynical, post-modern society.
His marriage lasted longer than global average life expectancy! Truly a remarkable man.
I grew up next to mission control and many of my neighbors and friends' parents were involved in Mission Control and/or Astronauts or both. Oddly, in the middle of nowhere Texas - Clear Lake. This gave me some interesting run-ins with cosmonauts, astronauts, physicists etc... I was lucky enough to meet John Glenn on 3 separate occasions. The first time, I discussed Plutonium 238 and my worries for satellite power giv…
> humanity has lost the Lee Iacocca of Space Perhaps you could explain the comparison to a somewhat famous car company executive ...
Lee Iacocca was an engineer.
Elon Musk is not an engineer.
