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Auburn Annie · 10-15-2004, 02:08 PM

This brings me back to when I was ten (1962) and the excitement good ol' Uncle Walt demonstrated - along with the rest of us - as the enormous Atlas rockets fired up, shook the ceiling tiles loose in the broadcast booth, and finally rumbled off the launch pad:

"While Glenn's aviation achievements were many, they were eclipsed in the fearful thunder and enormous clouds of steam and burned fuel on Feb. 20, 1962. Americans, riveted to their televisions, held their collective breath as the three main engines of the massive Atlas rocket ignited, lifting ever so slowly the Marine lieutenant colonel in his smaller-than-a-Volkswagen capsule, dubbed Friendship 7, off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In mission control, fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter said, "Godspeed, John Glenn," and the usually unflappable news anchor Walter Cronkite yelled, "Go, baby, go!"

It was the first manned orbital mission of the United States, and once free of Earth's gravity, Glenn radioed "Zero G, and I feel fine."

(From The Leatherneck Arhives, http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/glenn.htm)

And I can still hear Cronkite's excited voice 42 years later. Sometimes life is good.

10-15-2004, 02:08 PM	#5
Auburn Annie Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 3,101	This brings me back to when I was ten (1962) and the excitement good ol' Uncle Walt demonstrated - along with the rest of us - as the enormous Atlas rockets fired up, shook the ceiling tiles loose in the broadcast booth, and finally rumbled off the launch pad: "While Glenn's aviation achievements were many, they were eclipsed in the fearful thunder and enormous clouds of steam and burned fuel on Feb. 20, 1962. Americans, riveted to their televisions, held their collective breath as the three main engines of the massive Atlas rocket ignited, lifting ever so slowly the Marine lieutenant colonel in his smaller-than-a-Volkswagen capsule, dubbed Friendship 7, off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. In mission control, fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter said, "Godspeed, John Glenn," and the usually unflappable news anchor Walter Cronkite yelled, "Go, baby, go!" It was the first manned orbital mission of the United States, and once free of Earth's gravity, Glenn radioed "Zero G, and I feel fine." (From The Leatherneck Arhives, http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/glenn.htm) And I can still hear Cronkite's excited voice 42 years later. Sometimes life is good.