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John Glenn has died
- Animats 10y agoThat's the last of the Original Seven from the Mercury program.
- thearn4 10y agoI'm saddened to hear this, but it's also not exactly out of the blue given his age. Godspeed, Sen. (Col.) Glenn. It's an honor to work at your namesake NASA facility.
- tzakrajs 10y agoAs a Cleveland-native, I will never forget John Glenn and how his legacy brought honor to the area.
- squarefoot 10y agoAs a Earth-native living half a planet away, I also will never forget what him and other great people have done.
- rpledge 10y agoGodspeed, John Glenn....
- larrydag 10y agoI found out this week that John Glenn never actually heard that said. He was listening on a different mission frequency.
- efrafa 10y agoHe was great in one episode of Frasier.
- tnecniv 10y agoI couldn't believe they actually got him. Those last couple of seasons had some really quality guest appearances. (Also, all episodes of Frasier are great...)
- Huhty 10y ago"As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder." - John Glenn. RIP sir.
- notadoc 10y agoThat's a great and hilarious quote.
- pryelluw 10y agoStill applies to most software. Nuts.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- savoytruffle 10y agoA different version of that comment is often attributed to Alan Shepard (first American in space). Any connection to Glenn seems to be apocryphal from shortly after 9/11 http://www.snopes.com/rumors/glenn.asp http://www.snopes.com/rumors/glenn.asp
- jason_slack 10y agoRIP. I have to wonder, these first missions, did the astronauts have any assurance they would make it back to earth? What was it like to say goodbye to family, not knowing if you would return or not. Am I way off here? Was this mission uncertain or did NASA have reasonable assurances?
- ProAm 10y agoThey were all test pilots, they knew what the chances were.
- astrodust 10y agoI'm sure it was presumed to be "not good" as a baseline, and coming back in one piece was a bonus.
- masklinn 10y agoPretty much. Which is the daily life of a test pilot (especially at the time, some planes were absolute death traps). They knew the engineers were trying to make things as safe as possible, but they were still sitting atop giant missiles full of stuff going kabloey if you looked at it wrong: Glenn's first orbit was launched by an Atlas LV-3B, a modified and saferized derivation of the Atlas D ICBM powered by RP1/LOX. Well to be fair RP1/LOX is fairly tame when compared with H2/LOX or Hydrazine derivatives.
- astrodust 10y agoIt's like Chuck Yeager says, any landing where you survive is a great landing, and any landing where the plane can fly again is exceptional. He flew a firecracker over the speed of sound. That thing could have easily exploded when it hit that velocity due to unpredicted aero loading. Test pilots are made of sterner stuff than just about everyone else on the planet, but they're not ignorant of the risks.
- vkou 10y agoThey all knew the risks - they were very thoroughly trained in both the science, and the engineering that went into their spacecraft - as well as their many deadly failure modes. If that didn't drive the point home, the occasional Soviet space disaster certainly would have.
- koenigdavidmj 10y agoWhen he went up again in '98, it was another big justification to talk about it in schools. I wasn't alive for Challenger, but this (I was still in elementary school) was another one of those moments I really remember getting me excited about STEM.
- alaskamiller 10y agoAn often passed around marine legend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF5OBBhdTJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF5OBBhdTJ4 -- John Glenn, John Glenn, first American to orbit space. Was a senator from the state of Ohio, oldest man to go back up to space because he was a PT god. Before all of that he was a fucking Marine. An airwinger though. A pilot. John Glenn, 1974 ran for senate against a politician named Howard Metzenbaum. Howard Metzenbaum was a sorry motherfucker. John Glenn at this point was a Marine, first American to orbit the earth and space. Howard Metzenbaum asks him how can you run for senate when you never held a job? What the fuck would you do if someone said that shit to you? Now I'm gonna change a little bit of this, it's my world. John Glenn said, is that right? I served 27 years in the United States Marine Corps. I fought through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on twelve different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my job, it was my life that was on the line. And this wasn't a nine to five job where I can take time off to take daily cashier's check to the bank. I ask you to come with me the other day as I went to a veterans hospital, and you stand there, you look at those men with their mangled bodies, you look at them in the eye and you tell them they never held a job. You come with me and visit any gold star mother, you look her in the eye and you tell her her son never held a job. You come with me to the space program and visit the widows and orphans and you look at those kids and tell them that their dads never held a job. You come with me on this memorial day weekend coming up to Arlington National Cemetery where I got more friends than I'd like to remember and you stand there, you watch those waving flags, you think about this nation, and you tell me those people never held a job. Fuck. I'll tell you Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking god that there are some men who have never held a job. And they required a dedication of purpose, a love of country and dedication to duty that was more important than life itself. Their self sacrifice is what made this country fucking possible. Isn't that bad ass?
- saycheese 10y agoBeing enlisted in the military is a job with pay & benefits. More importantly, this is what Glenn said in response: https://library.osu.edu/documents/ohio-congressional-archives/documents/Gold%20Star%20Mother%20speech.pdf https://library.osu.edu/documents/ohio-congressional-archive... Unclear how editing Glenn's own words pays him any respect.
- rmason 10y agoJohn Glenn was one of my boyhood heroes. I remember as a young boy listening to reports of him taking off and making those three orbits of the earth. My uncle gave me a crystal radio shaped like Glenn's Friendship 7 capsule that ignited a fierce passion into radio that led to a ham radio license and a lifelong interest in science. It was a time in America when the future seemed endless, anything was possible. A lot has changed since then but that sense of optimism has never completely left me and may be the reason despite one crash and burn that I am still an entrepreneur. Still hopeful for a better future.
- viewer5 10y agoWould you mind talking about your passion for radio? It's not something I've really thought about (beyond a general, taking-it-for-granted "hey this is handy, I'm glad we have this in our repertoire of technology"), so I'd love to hear about your love.
- photogrammetry 10y agoKind of a weird comment. Is this a writing prompt, or do you really talk to people in the "I'd love to hear about your love" manner? Radio is awesome because of how awesome it is. Check out the new startup, google.com, if you want to find some more material about why.
- Gnewt 10y agoFor me, it's a joy to hear people talk about the things they are passionate about. I go out of my way to ask people to just talk about the things that interest them. I would be surprised if a majority of HN users did not have similar feelings.
- eropple 10y agoDo you not ask people why they like things that they're excited or jazzed about? 'Cause I mean--I do all the time. (I also ask about things people hate. You learn a lot from those two questions.)
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- giodamelio 10y agoI think he deserves a black bar if anyone does.
- jjcm 10y agoI certainly wont complain if we do put up a black bar for Glenn, but at the same time I feel like the black bar should represent a death of someone who directly contributed or was actively a part of the hacker community. While Glenn was immensely inspirational, he never really felt like a part of who we are.
- SEJeff 10y agoI couldn't (respectfully) disagree more. He has inspired a generation of us, myself included. My grandmother used to lead the Indianapolis Aero Club and somehow managed to get him as a speaker. My parents made the 2ish hour drive up just for me to hear one of my heros, Col John Glenn, talk for ~30 minutes (I was maybe 12-13 at the time?). While I did not ultimately achieve my dream of being an astronaut like him, I did however find my way into aerospace engineering and engineering in general as a result. He really inspired me on to greatness by being so down to earth and matter of fact. And now I'll say something a bit controversial. The world needs more people like him, and less people like Zuckerberg. While building the next $web_thing or unicorn startup is cool, inspiring an entire generation is a whole lot cooler. Rest in peace John!
- dmcginty 10y ago
- libria 10y agoSurprised the article didn't mention it, but he was the last living member of the Mercury 7.
- mabbo 10y agoTo live half the live that man did is to live a hell of a live. Godspeed.
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoI was born three days after his flight. There was a large upsurge in the names "John" and "Glenn" for newborn males, which I somehow escaped...
- halcyondaze 10y agoRIP to a true boss.
- kristofferR 10y agoThose who haven't heard about him should watch "When We Left Earth", a fantastic documentary miniseries about NASA. He was one of the many NASA astronauts interviewed.
- rbanffy 10y agoWe really should leave Earth more often...
- imode 10y agoas your body lay here on earth, your soul has touched the stars. thanks for spending time with us. rest in peace.
- kumarski 10y agoI grew up next to mission control and many of my neighbors and friends' parents were involved in Mission Control and/or Astronauts or both. Oddly, in the middle of nowhere Texas - Clear Lake. This gave me some interesting run-ins with cosmonauts, astronauts, physicists etc... I was lucky enough to meet John Glenn on 3 separate occasions. The first time, I discussed Plutonium 238 and my worries for satellite power given decommissioning of mission critical battery fodder for satellites on earth. The second time, the viability of a colorblind astronaut.(I have deuteranopia and he explained to me the structure of the consoles and the switching costs of changing out colors and the follow on risk/reward of color confusion). The third time, how we could keep more funding for NASA scale projects without having to keep offices in 50 different states for political pressure. He said he could go on for hours about this. All 3 times, he was sharp, inspiring, and a pleasure to be around. Today, humanity has lost the Lee Iacocca of Space. One of my favorite quotes by him that I think is incredibly relevant right now: "The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel."
- butter_NUT 10y agoMan, in what world is Clear Lake TX out in the middle of nowhere??
- owenversteeg 10y agoHe was an amazing man. Fun fact: the most popular years for babies named Glenn and John was 1962 and 1963 respectively [0,1], and you can see a little spike in births for both around the time John Glenn orbited the earth. Glenn entered the NASA test program without the required degree in a scientific field. He was the oldest man to fly in space, at age 77, and one of the last people to receive a ticker tape parade (the last one to receive multiple ticker-tape parades) IMHO if he qualified as one of a handful of people to get a ticker-tape parade, he definitely qualifies for a black bar. [0] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=first+name+john https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=first+name+john [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=first+name+glenn https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=first+name+glenn
- billmalarky 10y ago>He was the oldest man to fly in space, at age 77 My (then teenaged) brother had a change to meet John in the early 90s. He asked him, "Why don't you go back to space?" and suggested he go back up if the opportunity presented itself. We'll never know if that had any bearing on John Glenn's decision to return (maybe he already planned to I don't know), but I like to think it certainly did. Maybe just hearing the idea out loud, even from a teen, made the thought of it less crazy.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThis deserves a black bar (IMO) John Glenn was very influential on me as a student. He gave a talk at my high school about how learning as much as you could prepared you for the unexpected. He certainly put that to the test (as all of the astronauts then and now) do. The stakes are high, the resources limited, and time for a solution is finite. God speed John Glenn.
- cmdrfred 10y agoI second the black bar.
- cuckcuckspruce 10y ago>This deserves a black bar (IMO) Why would YCombinator give him a black bar? Did he bootstrap a lean startup using microservices in Haskel and basic income while building relationships with angel investors for the next round and ensuring a long runway for a pivot into another market? No? Then Hacker News doesn't care. This is Investor News. Angel News. Money News. Not Hacker News. Not "give a crap about science". Everyone would rather fellate Elon Musks's half-ass into rockets and electric cars instead of pay tribute to a legitimate American hero.
- celticninja 10y agoA very confusing point badly made.
- Lucas123 10y agoJohn Glenn was a true American hero. He was a U.S. Marine fighter pilot who flew 59 combat missions over the South Pacific during WWII and 63 combat missions during the Korean War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism or extraordinary achievement six times! In Korea, he got the nickname "magnet ass" because he attracted so much enemy flak on his missions. Oh yeah, and then he went on to become a test pilot, the first American to orbit the Earth, a five-term U.S. senator, and the oldest man to ever enter space. If you're ever looking for someone for your kids to look up to, this is the man.
- oxide 10y agoI lived in the Imperial Valley for a few years, from the way they talk about John Glenn I thought he was born and raised there. Nope, he's from Ohio. He passed over the valley (El Centro, specifically, IIRC) when he re-entered the atmosphere, it was just a claim to fame to attract tourists to the middle of nowhere.
- ffk 10y ago[Removing, comment was about someone else, sorry]
- larrydag 10y agoIf you ever get a chance go to Washington DC Air and Space Museum and find the Friendship 7 which is right at the main entrance. John Glenn literally flew around the Earth in space in a vehicle the size of a refrigerator. It is so staggering. The man is a legend.
- Fezzik 10y agoPerhaps not totally on-topic, but he was also hilarious and charasmatic, as evidenced by his guest appearance on Frasier. I knew his name when I saw the episdoe years ago, but his charm got me to read much more about him. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vO4iNhaQms0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vO4iNhaQms0
- rcarmo 10y ago"At 77, he orbited the Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery, once again rendering his body and mind to the study of science, providing insight into how the oldest man ever launched into space held up. Glenn, remarkably fit, became an inspiration once again to mankind." I teared up at this bit. The right stuff, indeed.
- sizzzzlerz 10y agoAnother of my childhood heroes is gone. I was 8 years old when Glenn went up into space and I still remember the black and white images of the launch, landing, and parades that ensued. I've been obsessed with space and its exploration ever since. Glenn is truly an American hero in every sense of the word.
- rbanffy 10y agoDamn you, 2016. :-(
- FullMtlAlcoholc 10y agoPeople like John Glenn are the reason why I became infatuated with the space program and STEM. He showed the heights humanity could reach by using science and knowledge to become masters of our own destiny instead of victims of nature and fate. Before personal computers, before the Internet, before cellphones, humans landed on the moon & live streamed it to 600 million people. EDIT: I feel the same way for artists like H.R. Giger, William Gibson, James Cameron, and Neal Stephenson. It's become fashionable for many to deride the value of a non-STEM education. But if it weren't for them and their creation of the cyberpunk ethos/genre and tech-noir, I'd most likely be working at a bank or a hedge fund in a decidely non-technical role. I also highly commend and greatly respect him for his efforts in nuclear non-proliferation. I imagine when you've seen earth from the view he had, you can't help seeing how small our differences actually are. That said, he wasn't perfect. His testimony in favor of excluding women from the astronaut program kept them from going on a mission until the 80's. To his credit, by the 1970's he had changed his mind and began supporting a female astronaut (Judith Resnick...interestingly she was recruited into the program by none than Lt. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols ) in her endeavors to join the astronaut program. Ultimately and unfortunately, she was a member of the ill-fated Challenger crew. Glenn gave a touching and inspirational speech at her memorial service that is worth reading: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/memorial.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/memorial.html Off topic rant: As I hear this news, I'm reminded of the whole Buzz Aldrin dustup. While I'm no advocate of violence, I was inspired when he decked that looney conspiracy theorist who claimed the moon landings were faked. Despite the fact that you can literally shine lasers on the pieces of spacecraft left on the Moon and see the reflections, there are still those forces of ignorance who refuse to accept reality even as it stares them right in the eye. Most people in his position and especially at his age would simply try to avoid that confrontation and be content to let charlatans spread their destructive, nonsensical fictions. John Glenn was not that man. For some reason, that incident is what truly sticks out in my mind about him and I always associate him with this image: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/3779149-no-you-move-cap-says.jpg http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/3779149... It's probably because I associate him with being the last of a dying breed, a modern hero in an increasingly cynical, post-modern society.
- billmalarky 10y ago"a remarkably healthy life spent almost from the cradle with Annie, his beloved wife of 73 years, who survives." His marriage lasted longer than global average life expectancy! Truly a remarkable man.
- grandwigg 10y agoI wish I had something profound, but all I have is the VHS I taped over Power Rangers to see the first senior citizen in space, along with the coverage taking about his historic orbits. I do what is amazing is with all our advances, all we seem to do is chunk metal into orbit. Still, he and his cohort have inspired many to do what I cannot, so perhaps I will someday see another space milestone.
- cs02rm0 10y agoSad news. My dad (a fast jet pilot) took us to Florida, from the UK, to watch him go up in 1998. I didn't really know who he was at the time but it's not often I've seen my dad look up (no pun intended) to someone. Left an impression on me and is probably no small part of the reason my own 4 year old son was running round with a rocket and a model astronaut ("Tim Peake") this morning. RIP.