http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/12/john-glenn/john-glenn.html
dead at 95
The last surviving member of the Mercury 7 astronauts John Glenn has died.
Dang it! Is this year over yet?!
But really, that guy had one hell of a life. Born in a small town, married a high school(?) sweetheart, fought in two wars . . . Then became an astronaut, senator, national hero, got an airport named after him, and plenty more most of us can only dream of.
That’s the kind of person to look up to.
Oh damn. As if 2016 weren’t already a shitty year. Godspeed, John Glenn.
"Good luck, Have a safe flight, and…Once again, Godspeed, John Glenn.
John Carpenter
So few left alive from the glory days of NASA.
He lived a very long and honorable life worthy of celebration. Truly a great man. We need a whole lot more just like him.
Now he really has “slipped the surly bonds of earth…Put out [his] hand, and touched the face of God.”
Well, crap. :mad:
He was one of my heroes in my childhood. I had a GI Joe Mercury capsule that came with a 45 RPM of bits of the CAPCOM recording of Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7). The GI Joe itself didn’t look anything like Glenn, but I just assumed it was and flew many an imaginary space mission with Col. Glenn.
“Zero G, and I feel fine.”
– John H. Glenn
God speed John Glenn.
dang, 2016 is an awful year.
Duplicate threads merged.
Damn.
Living the life he lived, being with his wife for over 70(!!!) years and making it to your 90s seems like a helluva time.
I won’t count this as tragic or a fist-shaking “2016!!!” death because the dude was 93 and accomplished more than half of my generation…but I will say the world lost a great one today.
I’ve been in a couple of threads here where folks have asked what superheroes would be like if they were real-world guys with plausible abilities, and I’ve said “John Glenn”.
I had heard just this morning that he was in the hospital. I hope his passing was a peaceful one. R.I.P. John. You were one of my heroes when I was growing up.
Man, do I remember him and his orbit of the planet. I still have the Anchorage paper with the headline “GLENN DOES IT!” I was hoping it would have been Chuck Yeager, but he did us proud.
Speaking of Chuck Yeager, he’s around the same age and still going strong. Still flying airplanes, last I heard, and still has better than 20/20 vision.
He sure did a live a very rich and full life . We lost a great hero !
Quite so! Though of course it’s always sad to see a well regarded figure go, here we had someone who had made the most of his passage through this world and was an inspiration for others to try to do so as well.
Well done, John Glenn.
(And yes, the faces of the 60s Space Race are quickly coming up against the barrier that cannot be broken… The Mercury Seven are now all beyond this universe. Only two of their Vostok contemporaries remain. And we’re down to 7 of the 12 moonwalkers. )
And by all accounts, his life was scandal-free.
Had he not had to leave NASA due to a concussion in 1964 from slipping in the bathtub :eek: :rolleyes: , I really believe that he would have been on the first moon mission, if not the first man to walk on the moon.
God Speed John Glenn. You outdid yourself.
Bravo Sir.