The Legacy of the Friendship 7 Flight  

            The success of the Friendship 7 space flight forty years ago this year had significant consequences for America’s young space program.  NASA proved it could successfully place an astronaut into outer space and bring him safely back again.  The mysteries about the affects of zero gravity upon the human body were to a great extent uncovered – man could indeed work in the environment of space.  The overwhelming public acclaim following the flight helped convince Congress to allocate the funding necessary to achieve the goal set by President Kennedy in May 1961 to land a man upon the moon before the end of the decade. 

         In recognition of the importance of the space flight of Friendship 7 to the United States space program NASA presented the capsule to the Smithsonian Institution on February 20, 1963 – the first anniversary of the flight.  At the ceremony Glenn presented the flight suit and helmet he wore during the flight, along with a small U.S. flag he carried on board.  Today the capsule sits in the hall of the National Air and Space Museum containing the aircraft piloted by Wilbur and Orville Wright, Charles Lindbergh, and other pioneer aviators.

         The success of his space flight had even more profound consequences for the life of Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr.  His name was on the front page of newspapers across the country and around the globe.  Millions of people viewed live television coverage of the flight and millions more participated in the national celebration that followed.  Hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail were sent to Glenn from people living in every state in the nation and from close to one hundred foreign countries, including the Soviet Union.  In thousands of elementary classrooms in America schoolchildren wrote letters about and drew pictures of the event, often binding their efforts together into an album sent to Glenn with a cover letter from the teacher stating what an inspiration he was to the children.  Glenn received hundreds of invitations for public appearances at events ranging from local Boy Scout meetings to meetings of prestigious scientific societies.  Scores of individuals sent him the poem or song they wrote to commemorate the occasion.

             This public recognition of the feat he achieved on February 20, 1962 has followed John Glenn all of his life.  In a statement he wrote in 1982 for the twentieth anniversary of the flight Glenn noted how “it is a rare day, even now, that someone does not ask me something about that orbital experience.”  One result of his space flight was the friendship Glenn formed with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert.  The two Kennedys recognized the political potential of Glenn’s popularity and with their urging Glenn ran for the U.S. Senate in the 1964 Ohio Democratic primary.  Glenn’s campaign ended when he was forced to drop out of the race due to an accidental head injury.  Glenn again tried, but failed, to gain the nomination in 1970.  A third try in 1974 gained him the nomination and after the November election, his first term in the U.S. Senate.  

            John Glenn subsequently won re-election to the U.S. Senate three times- his twenty-four years of public service a record for a U.S. Senator from Ohio.  A landslide victory in his 1980 re-election campaign convinced him to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the 1984 elections.  Seen by many in 1983 as a front-runner in the campaign, Glenn was forced to drop out of the race in March 1984 after poor showings in the early primaries.  He left the race saddled with a large campaign debt that took him more than a decade to settle.  However, the debt issue did not deter his popularity with the voters of Ohio as Glenn won re-election to the Senate in 1986 and 1992 by large margins. 

            As a U.S. Senator, Glenn quietly worked for legislation designed to improve the lives of Americans.  Best known as the author of numerous bills to restrict the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world, Glenn’s background in science and technology also made him a leader in the passage of regulations designed to clean up the decades of radioactive waste at the nation’s nuclear weapons sites left over from the Cold War arms race.  A proponent of government efficiency, Senator Glenn sponsored legislation to create inspector generals in federal government departments to end waste, fraud and abuse in government spending.  

From his years spent as a military test pilot and NASA astronaut Glenn also brought to the Senate a firm belief in the value to the nation of basic scientific and technological research and development.  This belief extended not only to his support for the nation’s space program, but also to every aspect of human inquiry into the unknown.  In a statement made in 1987 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Friendship 7 space flight, Senator Glenn called Americans “a curious questing people” and said, “the exploration of the unknown is nothing less than an expression of America’s spirit.”  In this spirit of exploration of the unknown Senator Glenn made his celebrated return to space in 1998.   As part of the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95, Glenn underwent a series of experiments designed to further scientific knowledge about the affects of space travel upon the aging process.  In many respects these experiments were a fitting sequel for the person who thirty-six years earlier became the first American to ever undergo prolonged exposure to the weightlessness of space. 

During the four decades since the space flight of Friendship 7 NASA placed the first astronaut on the moon and made journeys into orbit around the earth seem almost routine through its Space Shuttle Program.  NASA is now at the center of a global effort to construct an orbiting space station designed as a platform to further human knowledge.  Since February 20, 1962, John Glenn contributed much to the benefit of his country before retiring from the U.S. Senate in 1998.  Prior to his retirement Senator Glenn, justly proud of a lifetime spent in public service, saw a need to counter the negative image many young people held towards a public service career.  Determined to share the knowledge gained during his fifty years as a Marine aviator, NASA astronaut, and U.S. Senator, in 1998 he joined with The Ohio State University to create the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy.  Through the various programs sponsored by the institute the legacy of a five-hour space flight made forty years ago by a pioneer astronaut strapped inside a tiny spacecraft will endure for future generations.