Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War PDF Author: Jeff Shesol
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race. If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War—a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival—and America was losing. On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War PDF Author: Jeff Shesol
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race. If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War—a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival—and America was losing. On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."

Godspeed, John Glenn

Godspeed, John Glenn PDF Author:
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
ISBN: 9781590783849
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Picture-book biography of John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth.

John Glenn: A Memoir

John Glenn: A Memoir PDF Author: John Glenn
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553581570
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
He was the first astronaut to orbit the Earth. Nearly four decades later, as the world's oldest astronaut, his courage reveted a nation. But these two historical events only bracketed a life that covers the sweep of an extraordinary century. John Glenn's autobiography spans the seminal events of the twentieth century. It is a story that begins with his childhood in Ohio where he learned the importance of family, community, and patriotism. He took these values with him as a marine fighter pilot during World War II and into the skies over Korea, for which he would be decorated. Always a gifted flier, it was during the war that he contemplated the unlimited possibilities of aviation and its frontiers. We see the early days of NASA, where he first served as a backup pilot for astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. In 1962 Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States. Then came several years in international business, followed by a twenty-four year career as a U.S. Senator-and in 1998 a return to space for his remarkable Discover mission at the age of seventy-seven.

John Glenn

John Glenn PDF Author: Paul Kupperberg
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 9780823944606
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
Traces the life of the pioneering astronaut who later served as a United States senator from Ohio and, at the age of seventy-seven, returned to space as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Discovery.

John Glenn, First American in Orbit

John Glenn, First American in Orbit PDF Author: David S. Akens
Publisher: Strode Publishers
ISBN: 9780873972000
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
A biography of the first American astronaut to orbit the earth on February 20, 1962.

John Glenn

John Glenn PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780881203226
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
A biography of the first American astronaut to orbit the earth on February 20, 1962.

The Last American Hero

The Last American Hero PDF Author: Alice L. George
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 9781641605960
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became a national star. That morning at Cape Canaveral, a small-town boy from Ohio took his place atop a rocket and soared into orbit to score a victory in the heavily contested Cold War. The television images were blurry black-and-white phantoms. The cameras shook as the rocket moved, but by the end of the day, one thing was clear: a new hero rode that rocket and became the center of the world's attention for the four hours and fifty-five minutes of his flight. From that day forward, Glenn restively wore the hero label. Refusing to let that dramatic day define his life, he went on to become a four-term US senator--and returned to space at the age of seventy-seven. He was a creation of the media, in some ways, but he was also a product of the Cold War. At a time when increasingly cynical Americans need heroes, his aura burns brightly in American memory.

John Glenn

John Glenn PDF Author: David S. Akens
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780884119005
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Friendship 7

Friendship 7 PDF Author: Colin Burgess
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319156543
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
In this spellbinding account of an historic but troubled orbital mission, noted space historian Colin Burgess takes us back to an electrifying time in American history, when intrepid pioneers were launched atop notoriously unreliable rockets at the very dawn of human space exploration. A nation proudly and collectively came to a standstill on the day this mission flew; a day that will be forever enshrined in American spaceflight history. On the morning of February 20, 1962, following months of frustrating delays, a Marine Corps war hero and test pilot named John Glenn finally blazed a path into orbit aboard a compact capsule named Friendship 7. The book’s tension-filled narrative faithfully unfolds through contemporary reports and the personal recollections of astronaut John Glenn, along with those closest to the Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions. Friendship 7. The book’s tension-filled narrative faithfully unfolds through contemporary reports and the personal recollections of astronaut John Glenn, along with those closest to the Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions. Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions.

John Glenn

John Glenn PDF Author: Andrew Chaikin
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 158834486X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
In February 1962, he became the first American to orbit the Earth. Since then John Herschel Glenn Jr. has stood in the popular imagination as a quintessentially American hero. In John Glenn: America's Astronaut, a special edition e-book featuring 45 stunning photographs as well as a video, Chaikin explores Glenn's path to greatness. John Glenn features new details on Glenn's selection as an astronaut in 1959, newly synchronized onboard film and audio of Glenn's harrowing reentry from orbit on his 1962 Mercury mission, rarely seen images of Glenn in orbit and from the John Glenn archives at Ohio State University, as well as new, touching reminiscenes of Glenn's 1998 return to space from his Space Shuttle crewmates. Glenn is the embodiment of the history of human spaceflight and the indefatigable American spirit, and John Glenn: America's Astronaut is his amazing story.