Glenn speech

Eighteen times a day? Sixteen? Close enough for geezertalk....
He trusted the rubes wouldn't know the difference.

OK, six years later, where's all these geriatric medical breakthroughs
that Glenn promised his flight would bring? Where are the scientific
insights leading to better health for old folks? Glenn doesn't care. He got
his.

Talk among astronauts is, he did good as a crewman, behaved honorably
and responsibly. Most folks never objected to a 'lifetime achievement'
flight award (that achievement happened to include major water carrying
for Clinton White House coverups, but that was his job). But the pretense
to older Americans that he was flying FOR THEM, to make THEIR lives
better -- that stuck in a lot of craws, including (as you can guess) mine.

Jim O

PS Eighteen times a day is an orbital period of 80 minutes. A couple of
hundred miles underground orbit, I'd guess.An hour and 29 minutes
is 16.2 times a day.

John Glenn speaks to Michiana
http://www.wndu.com/news/112004/news_38723.php

Posted: 11/30/2004 12:20 am
Last Updated: 11/30/2004 12:20 am

Story filed by NewsCenter16 Reporter
Judi Lykowski

Benton Harbor, MI - Most of us are lucky enough to have one distinguishing
career in our life time, but Monday night's guest speaker at the Economic
Club of Southwest Michigan has been recognized for three. He is none other
than John Glenn.

Glenn seems to have done it all: he's a distinguished war hero, the first
American to orbit earth, a former U.S. senator, and the oldest person to fly
in space. But at age 83, he told an audience of more than 600 at Lake
Michigan College Monday, that he's not done yet.

On his astronaut experience
Glenn shared an inside look that most of us can only dream of, saying, "You
go around the earth about once every hour and 29 minutes. It's about 18
times the normal speed of rotation of the earth."

He says that from the window of a space craft, the time between the sun
rising and setting appear 18 times the normal speed.

His first trip into space earned him the great honor of the first American
to orbit the earth, but he explains humbly, "The first flight I did in 1962
was basically pretty much to see if we could do it or not."

His trip back in 1998 earned him another honor. At age 77, Glenn was the
oldest to enter space, and this time the mission was to test the effects of
space on the elderly.

Glenn explained Monday, "There's some aging in the human body that occurs,
53 different things that change when you go up in space, and about nine of
these occur as you get older on earth."

In between his days of being an astronaut, he was an Ohio senator for 24
years. He heads the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Policy at
Ohio State University, and is also a member of the National Advisory Council
for NASA.

On the future of space exploration
Glenn made his opinion clear about President Bush's plans for the space
program, saying, "The plan now is to go to the moon first and launch from
there to Mars, but I think there is a simpler way of doing this: orbiting
from earth and build up your craft from earth's orbit."

He spoke also on the issue of defending space, saying, "I hope we never come
to weaponizing space. I hope we can stay away from that, space is one place
where we can travel and we have yet to fight a war in space."

On US education
Glenn addressed education in the U.S. and its need to focus more on a
uniformed high school math and science curriculum, saying that otherwise,
other nations will gain ground in space developments.

He said, "Education, and that's an area where I think we have to be careful,
we better shape up or get left behind. If we get behind on education and
research then we truly going to have big problems."

Next year guest speakers for the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan will be
political columnist Cal Thomas, documentary film maker Ken Burns, and Queen
of Jordan her majesty Queen Noor.

In sci.space.history Pat Flannery wrote:


Jim Oberg wrote:


Talk among astronauts is, he did good as a crewman, behaved honorably
and responsibly. Most folks never objected to a 'lifetime achievement'
flight award (that achievement happened to include major water carrying
for Clinton White House coverups, but that was his job). But the pretense
to older Americans that he was flying FOR THEM, to make THEIR lives
better -- that stuck in a lot of craws, including (as you can guess) mine.


I spent a lot of the duration of STS-95 as part of an experiment team
in the GSFC operations room, and thus had occasion to watch interminable
in-flight news events. (Our UV telescope would have been much more
productive had the azimuth bearing not frozen in place - we all love
spherical trig at 3 a.m. to see what's accessible... we did manafe
to get a 90-degree attitude cange during one late orbit to give
a more informative drift-scan direction.) Anyway, Glenn
conducted himself with good humor and humility in all of these,
taking care to mention and defer to the other crewmembers frequently,
which he also did at the MSFC post-flight public event.

Bill Keel

Jim Oberg wrote:


Talk among astronauts is, he did good as a crewman, behaved honorably
and responsibly. Most folks never objected to a 'lifetime achievement'
flight award (that achievement happened to include major water carrying
for Clinton White House coverups, but that was his job). But the pretense
to older Americans that he was flying FOR THEM, to make THEIR lives
better -- that stuck in a lot of craws, including (as you can guess) mine.


You know how he could have given good medical data? If he'd spent the
entire mission cooped up in a replica Mercury capsule in the cargo bay.
Now that would have given good "then and now" data. He could entertain
the Shuttle's crew looking out of the cargo bay windows by attempting to
write his initials via "space fireflies" on the firmament itself. :-D

Pat

William C. Keel wrote:

In sci.space.history Pat Flannery wrote:




Hey, I didn't write none of that stuff....I was going to write that
Glenn's talk of "eighteen times a day" being in reference to his
continuing sexual potency, and not related to Shuttle orbital height-
but thought better of it. ;-)
Pat

Jim Oberg ) wrote:
: Eighteen times a day? Sixteen? Close enough for geezertalk....
: He trusted the rubes wouldn't know the difference.

: OK, six years later, where's all these geriatric medical breakthroughs
: that Glenn promised his flight would bring? Where are the scientific
: insights leading to better health for old folks? Glenn doesn't care. He got
: his.

: Talk among astronauts is, he did good as a crewman, behaved honorably
: and responsibly. Most folks never objected to a 'lifetime achievement'
: flight award (that achievement happened to include major water carrying
: for Clinton White House coverups, but that was his job). But the pretense
: to older Americans that he was flying FOR THEM, to make THEIR lives
: better -- that stuck in a lot of craws, including (as you can guess) mine.

Glenn is a Democrat and you're a Republican. End of story.

Eric

: Jim O

: PS Eighteen times a day is an orbital period of 80 minutes. A couple of
: hundred miles underground orbit, I'd guess.An hour and 29 minutes
: is 16.2 times a day.

: John Glenn speaks to Michiana
: http://www.wndu.com/news/112004/news_38723.php

: Posted: 11/30/2004 12:20 am
: Last Updated: 11/30/2004 12:20 am

: Story filed by NewsCenter16 Reporter
: Judi Lykowski

: Benton Harbor, MI - Most of us are lucky enough to have one distinguishing
: career in our life time, but Monday night's guest speaker at the Economic
: Club of Southwest Michigan has been recognized for three. He is none other
: than John Glenn.

: Glenn seems to have done it all: he's a distinguished war hero, the first
: American to orbit earth, a former U.S. senator, and the oldest person to fly
: in space. But at age 83, he told an audience of more than 600 at Lake
: Michigan College Monday, that he's not done yet.

: On his astronaut experience
: Glenn shared an inside look that most of us can only dream of, saying, "You
: go around the earth about once every hour and 29 minutes. It's about 18
: times the normal speed of rotation of the earth."

: He says that from the window of a space craft, the time between the sun
: rising and setting appear 18 times the normal speed.

: His first trip into space earned him the great honor of the first American
: to orbit the earth, but he explains humbly, "The first flight I did in 1962
: was basically pretty much to see if we could do it or not."

: His trip back in 1998 earned him another honor. At age 77, Glenn was the
: oldest to enter space, and this time the mission was to test the effects of
: space on the elderly.

: Glenn explained Monday, "There's some aging in the human body that occurs,
: 53 different things that change when you go up in space, and about nine of
: these occur as you get older on earth."

: In between his days of being an astronaut, he was an Ohio senator for 24
: years. He heads the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Policy at
: Ohio State University, and is also a member of the National Advisory Council
: for NASA.

: On the future of space exploration
: Glenn made his opinion clear about President Bush's plans for the space
: program, saying, "The plan now is to go to the moon first and launch from
: there to Mars, but I think there is a simpler way of doing this: orbiting
: from earth and build up your craft from earth's orbit."

: He spoke also on the issue of defending space, saying, "I hope we never come
: to weaponizing space. I hope we can stay away from that, space is one place
: where we can travel and we have yet to fight a war in space."

: On US education
: Glenn addressed education in the U.S. and its need to focus more on a
: uniformed high school math and science curriculum, saying that otherwise,
: other nations will gain ground in space developments.

: He said, "Education, and that's an area where I think we have to be careful,
: we better shape up or get left behind. If we get behind on education and
: research then we truly going to have big problems."

: Next year guest speakers for the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan will be
: political columnist Cal Thomas, documentary film maker Ken Burns, and Queen
: of Jordan her majesty Queen Noor.

Pat Flannery ) wrote:


: Jim Oberg wrote:

:
: Talk among astronauts is, he did good as a crewman, behaved honorably
: and responsibly. Most folks never objected to a 'lifetime achievement'
: flight award (that achievement happened to include major water carrying
: for Clinton White House coverups, but that was his job). But the pretense
: to older Americans that he was flying FOR THEM, to make THEIR lives
: better -- that stuck in a lot of craws, including (as you can guess) mine.
:

: You know how he could have given good medical data? If he'd spent the
: entire mission cooped up in a replica Mercury capsule in the cargo bay.
: Now that would have given good "then and now" data. He could entertain
: the Shuttle's crew looking out of the cargo bay windows by attempting to
: write his initials via "space fireflies" on the firmament itself. :-D

Well if he started aging and then becoming young again, it would have made
for a great movie. Opps, 2010, alrady done. Never mind!

: Pat

"Eric Chomko"
Glenn is a Democrat and you're a Republican. End of story.

You are a moron. End of story.

Yeah, but we'r talking about John Glenn, not some "miserable pud-knocker", to
steal a line from "The Right Stuff". I still find it amazing that the general
public no longer recalls the other Mercury astronauts; even old farts like me
and you. Glenn's shuttle flight was a good doggy getting a bone. I know it,
you know it, and John Glenn knows it. Always the savvy player (remember two
hands up?), Glenn knew how to slay the public press in 1962, and he is still
trying to keep his skills sharp. He is still an advocate for spaceflight
expansion; he is still NASA's best flight experienced cheer-leader. John Glenn
has held up his end for the space program. How I would love to see some of the
other early rocket jockeys, Schirra, Carpenter, and the Gemini guys too, get up
and push spaceflight hard. Everyone of those guys deserves to be listened to.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:39:01 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Jim
Oberg" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:


"Eric Chomko"
Glenn is a Democrat and you're a Republican. End of story.

You are a moron.

Yes.

End of story.

Would that it were true. Unfortunately, it's a continuing saga.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 15:03:49 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

PS Eighteen times a day is an orbital period of 80 minutes. A couple of
hundred miles underground orbit, I'd guess.An hour and 29 minutes
is 16.2 times a day.

....Yeah, but either way, we already know what he's alluding to: viagra
was a secret NASA spinoff :-)

OM

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