Word: orbit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Glenn speculated that the particles might be the cloud of needles the Air Force had tried to orbit last October* or that they might be snowflakes formed by the cooling of water vapor from his jet nozzles. But Glenn quickly rejected both theories. Best explanation of the phenomenon: the capsule was giving off electrically charged particles of water or gas vapor that were attracted to each other, built up the specks that Glenn saw. When Glenn later described the particles to George Rapp, a Project Mercury psychiatrist, he got the deadpan response: "What did they say. John...
During periods of darkness, he flicked on the tiny flashlights that were attached to the fingers of his gloves, directed the beams on his maps. He found he could urinate easily into the "motorman's pal," which was attached to the lining of his space suit. On his second orbit, he again ran into the field of luminous particles; he turned his capsule around at a 180° angle to see them better, but most of them were eventually lost in the glare...
...Astronaut Glenn's adventure involved far more than mere sightseeing in space. He encountered difficulties that turned his journey into a nightmare of suspense. Passing within radio range of Guaymas, Mexico, on his first orbit, his attitude control system began to act up. A small jet, designed to release hydrogen peroxide steam to keep the capsule in a stable position, was not working properly. The capsule, reported Glenn, "drifts off in yaw to the right at about one degree per second. It will go to 20 degrees and hold at that...
Worrisome as it was, the problem with the attitude control system was nothing as compared with another threat. Just as Glenn was beginning his second orbit, an instrument panel in the Project Mercury Control Center at Canaveral picked up a warning that the Fiberglas heat shield on Friendship 7 had come ajar. If the shield were to separate before or during the capsule's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, John Glenn would perish in a flash of flame...
...Distinguished Flying Crosses and an Air Medal with 18 clusters), Glenn had lived with supersonic speed and the constant possibility of sudden death. To the millions who saw and heard him last week, it was obvious that John Glenn was a perfect choice to become the first American to orbit the earth...