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50 years later, celebrating John Glenn's first US earth orbit
- davvid 15y agoWhat a nice guy. I was in elementary school when John Glenn visited our school. He even signed the random shirt I happened to be wearing that day. I think the idea of astronauts really changed my thinking.
- callmeed 15y agoThe Right Stuff remains one of my favorite movies ever. If any of you youngsters haven't seen it yet, you should.
- dctoedt 15y agoThe book was infinitely more true to life; my dad's copy, from the first printing, is still on my shelf. (My dad was a career USAF fighter pilot, and I spent most of my Navy time aboard an aircraft carrier, so I had a certain amount of exposure to the fighter-jock culture.)
- jballanc 15y agoIt bears mentioning: * 1903 - First manned, powered flight * 1927 - First New York to Paris flight * 1957 - First artificial satellite * 1962 - John Glen in space * 1969 - Man walks on Moon * 2012 - ... Now, I'm not trying to say anything about stagnation of progress, for I feel that is the wrong lesson to take from this story. A similar looking timeline could be constructed for the development of the internet, except shifted about 50 years later, or about the exploration of the Americas, except shifted about 400 years earlier (and stretched out a bit). This story has been repeated throughout human history. The keys to progress are the ability to identify when a frontier is open to exploitation, and the ability to identify when the frontier vanishes in the face of conquest. Flight has become mundane. Spaceflight will, I should think, soon become mundane. The internet is becoming mundane. The question is, what events will people be commemorating in this fashion 50 years from now?