What kind of politician was John Glenn?

[carnivorousplant]

@Santos L Halper

Deke Slayton was grounded with a minor erratic heartbeat.

My mistake.

@Santos L Halper

Armstrong’s authorized biography was released recently. I haven’t read it yet, but it’d have to give a clear explanation of how he ended up leaving the space program.

I look forward to it.

[Cliffy]

@Santos L Halper

Three of the Mercury Seven only flew once - Carpenter, Glenn and Slayton (who didn’t actually fly during Mercury, he was grounded and didn’t end up flying until Apollo/Soyuz in 1975).

Technically, of course, Glenn did fly again, as a civillian on STS-95, a mission on the Space Shuttle Discovery.

As noted above, Shepard commanded Apollo 14. Gus Grissom commanded Gemini 3 and was the commander of the first manned Apollo mission; he died on the Apollo 1 fire. Wally Schirra commanded Gemini 6 (famous for achieving rendevous with the already-orbiting Gemini 7; NASA’s first manned space rendevous) and then Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission. And Gordon Gooper commanded Gemini 5.

–Cliffy

[zamboniracer]

Glenn was such a boring speaker that Dave Barry wrote of him “that he couldn’t electrify a fish tank if he threw a toaster into it.” He was a straight shooter with the right stuff though. I can’t find a cite to it right now, but at a Democratic convention once while being interviewed by a TV reporter Glenn saw that the reporter’s equipment, which was strapped to the reporter’s back, was malfunctioning by overheating and quickly extricated the reporter from the contraption, almost before the reporter knew what was happening.

[flurb]

@WotNot

I seem to remember that Glenn wasn’t too keen on his portrayal in the book The Right Stuff, but was much happier with his depiction in the film, which was also conveniently timed to raise his profile for the presidential race. This prompted Reagan to disparage him as a “Hollywood hero”.

That’s Ronald Reagan. The actor.

Any cite on the Reagan quote? I couldn’t find anything through Google or Nexis.

[WotNot]

@flurb

Any cite on the Reagan quote? I couldn’t find anything through Google or Nexis.

I’m sorry, I was just going by memory of what was reported here (in the UK) at the time. A quick search doesn’t bring anything up for me either – I’ll try to have a look later when work isn’t pressing.

[Cliffy]

@zamboniracer

at a Democratic convention once while being interviewed by a TV reporter Glenn saw that the reporter’s equipment, which was strapped to the reporter’s back, was malfunctioning by overheating and quickly extricated the reporter from the contraption, almost before the reporter knew what was happening.

Connie Chung, I believe.

–Cliffy