"Friendship 7" Premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on NASA TV

The first orbital spaceflight by an American, John Glenn, on Feb. 20, 1962, is highlighted in a new, NASA Television documentary premiering this Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[AnotherVadammt]

Sad day for space:

NASA limited working together with ESA, becouse they have (supposedly) financial problems....

[melrobRTF]

Ohh i also like the Kerbal Space Program :D

[melrobRTF]

That is true. The result was completely unexpected: the realisation that we stand as one species on a pale blue dot, in the vastness of space. Peace!

[Zeus0Moose]

I certainly understand that, as it was still a competition, just one which fortunately was allowed to play itself out in a less dangerous manner due to the space race.

[melrobRTF]

Watch this video /watch?v=0xUAR6vbxxU

[melrobRTF]

Ok. But it was also to prove to the Russians that the US possed rockets that where reliable accurate and had a huge range. You can hear Carl Sagan explain in this video: /watch?v=0xUAR6vbxxU

[nickyp28]

Poor Al Shepard. John Glenn gets all the glory.

[pleonic]

Oooo.. I really have to see this! And incidentally, if Carl Sagan ever said that, he was way off base. The last thing you'd to to improve "rocket performance" is put a human on top. Far simpler to put all your money into improving the rocket, without all that expensive "keeping an John Glen alive" stuff. Our motives weren't as pure as that "science and peace" blurb makes it (what about, "beating the Russians?") but we didn't endanger 7 men just for the sake of the Atlas rocket.

[Zeus0Moose]

Though that is correct, as a default the space race (and all of the missions which formed it, from Sputnik to Apollo) of the cold war promoted a scientific and peaceful way to compete between nations and ideologies, rather than bickering, propaganda and war.