Astronaut John Glenn of New Concord Ohio
Lieutenant Colonel United States Marine
Corps
married father of two teenage children
Glenn has been a pilot over half of his
40 years has flown in two wars and the
veteran test pilot who five years
earlier established a transcontinental
point record as the first man to average
supersonic speeds across America
volunteered for spaceflight is one of
seven astronauts selected for Project
Mercury the manned space program
directed by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
the pioneer the way into space for Glenn
astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil
Grissom tested the Mercury spacecraft on
trailblazing suborbital missions
proving the equipment and pushing the program
to the threshold of orbital flights
it's winter pretty presentation now to
Glen Falls the challenge of man's next
advance into space. He has been chosen
to cross the threshold gained by Shepard
and Grissom and to orbit the work
all the countdown continues for John
Glenn and it continues beyond this room
for Friendship 7 and it continues this
moment around the world
what are the thoughts of a man about to
rocket into history is the astronaut the
man who will challenge space but he is
just one member of an international
scientific endeavor that requires the
genius and skills of some 40,000 other
men and women scattered throughout the
world on the engineers and technicians
who produced the space vehicle to the
cruise now preparing to launch it from
the tracking experts who will charge his
boys around the globe to the sailors not
waiting at sea to recover him behind his
day stands years of preparation of
research and testing planning and
training Department of it all
knowledge of space how effectively
manned spacecraft can function together
and it's hostile environment knowledge
that will serve as the basis for space
explorations of the future hard-won
knowledge of benefit to all men by
sacrifice and dedication
ok
just a handful of minutes remain
ok
the countdown is their master plan and
they proceeded through its ritual with
one hurry deliberation its pages contain
the timetable of order they must hollow
to a week in a giant machine to test its
readiness to private for the one supreme
moment for which it was created and I
salon now Peter e-banking both trouble
stand down now meter reads 11.56
ok
all mercury stations reported go special
equipment has been installed here at the
front sight for them to tell their story
to the world of their own newspapers and
for the radio station from Latin America
because our on start interrogation in
one minute ride all the way you've got a
plan
started
that much more rapidly as a game speed
without dude after two minutes booster
engine cutoff occurred his program and
the booster section with jettison the
escape tower now I needed was also
jettison five minutes after launch the
space vehicle at an altitude of 100
files seco sustainer engine car
the spacecraft was released from the
launch vehicle and deposit great rockets
fired
at the end of the first orbit across
your malfunction committed only partial
use of the automatic stabilization and
control system after not blend took over
and control the spacecraft manually the
second orbit over Russia Australia
ground telemetry signal indicated that
the heat shield might be loosed a
decision was made by mercury control
program reentry with the retrorocket
package in place and astronaut Glenn was
instructed to manually override the
automatic jettison mechanism for 45
minutes from now
manual you understand
very good
i cannot lend his spacecraft friendship
7 landed well within the plan recovery
area all mission objectives have been
achieved including a realization of the
primary goal of the victory program to
put a man in orbit around the Earth and
recover him safely but the me6 flight
had done even more if it demonstrated
conclusively that man was a necessary
requirement for spaceflight to implement
decisions beyond ground control limits
to supplement automated systems with his
reason and technical skill the scope of
manned space flight had been enlarged
John
other brave men will follow tomorrow and
in the tomorrow's after that each step
more Bowl we reach out to explore the
universe breaking down here
today I know that I seem to be standing
alone on this great platform just as I
seem to be alone in the cockpit of the
friendship 7 spacecraft but I'm not
there with me then and with me now
thousands of Americans and many hundreds
of citizens of many countries around the
world who contributed to this truly
international undertaking voluntarily
and in a spirit of cooperation and
understanding on behalf of all those
people I would like to express my and
their heartfelt thanks for the honors
you have bestowed upon us here today we
are all proud to have been privileged to
be part of this effort to represent our
country as we have as our knowledge of
this universe in which we live increases
may God grant us wisdom and guidance to
use it wisely