Glenn's Space Shot -- Plus Fifty

My first reaction, a couple of days ago, was almost disbelief: It has been 50 YEARS (!) since John Glenn carried out his historic five-hour flight, making three orbits of the Earth.

By early 1962, the American space program had fallen way behind that of the Soviet Union, who had launched the first man-made satellite, “Sputnik,” in October, 1957. (I can still hear the beeps that were transmitted at the time.) The USSR followed it with a series of satellites, some of which carried animals into space, and, of course, their most important feat: the orbital flight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in April, 1961.
It was a Big P-R Event on TV; we watched Soviet Premier welcome Gagarin to the Kremlin with much military pomp and circumstance.
President John Kennedy had announced in May of 1961,
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
Could they do it?
They had to break the task down into three simple goals:
1. Place a man into orbit,
2. test his ability to work in space, and
3. bring him back safely.
So, there was a lot of pressure on the Americans – especially the seven Mercury astronauts – to carry out their mission.
It was an exciting time, to be sure: all of the American space shots were carried live on television, and, here in Canada, we watched CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite report all the details at his enthusiastic best.
Of course, to witness and fully experience the missions, we had to learn lots of new words and phrases, such as:
-- "Astronaut / Cosmonaut”, the names of those who would fly in space(USA/USSR).
-- “Cape Canaveral”, the area of northern Florida where the launch was to take place.
-- “All systems: Go!”, the best news of all, which meant that we were going to see a launch later that day.
-- “5-4-3-2-1-zero!”, the end of the “countdown,” when the launch / liftoff would begin.
-- “Mercury-Atlas”, the name of the rocket.
(And of course, much later, during the grim aftermath of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission :
-- “Houston, we have a problem.”)
The flight was a huge success; John Glenn and all his NASA colleagues (many of whom Canadian engineer / refugees from the scrubbed Arrow project) became big stars around the world. He later went on to embark on a distinguished career as a United States Senator, and, on October 29, 1998, he became the oldest person to fly in space, and the only one to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs, when at age 77, he flew on Discovery.
In the context of the 'space race,' how important did Glenn's mission turn out to be?
Yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch, in his home state of Ohio, claimed that:
Glenn’s Mercury flight changed everything. That one mission opened the door for the Apollo program, the shuttle program, the International Space Station and someday a manned trip to Mars.
In reference to this event, I have a personal confession to make: 50 years ago today, February 20, 1962, I was suffering from a mild head cold, and decided not to attend school that day, for my grade 11 classes. I decided to stay home (Gasp!) and watch Walter Cronkite present the great CBS News eight-hour coverage of the entire flight.
(I did it and I'm glad!)