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Credit & Copyright: Courtesy NASA
Explanation:
Rehearsing for his
historic flight on February 20, 1962,
Mercury program astronaut
John H. Glenn Jr. works
in a cramped training capsule preparing
for a few hours'
voyage through space.
Dubbed
Friendship 7, his own snug spacecraft was launched by an Atlas
rocket and carried Glenn
three times around planet Earth
at an altitude of about 120 miles,
returning him safely to a "splashdown" in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first American in orbit,
Senator Glenn's remarkable return to space will be 36 years later
as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle
Discovery mission STS-95.
Discovery is a roomier craft which will carry a crew of 7
and an array of scientific payloads, such as the
International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker.
Scheduled for
launch today at 2:00 PM Eastern Time,
Discovery will orbit at an altitude of 320 miles and land
after 8 days at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility.
Godspeed the
crew of STS-95 !
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: space shuttle Discovery - Mercury program - john glenn - astronaut
Publications with words: space shuttle Discovery - Mercury program - john glenn - astronaut
See also: