Rose English Fantasy

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Hershel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight (軌道飛行) by an American astronaut (太空人).

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel (中校) in the U.S. Marine Corps (海軍陸戰隊), was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (美國航太總署) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts. A decorated (被裝飾的、被授勳的) pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions (戰鬥任務) during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop superˋ

Glenn was preceded (被超前) in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov. In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on asuborbital (低軌道的) flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7. In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted (奮力衝刺) further ahead in the space race (太空競賽) when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits. As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate (二流的) compared with its Cold War adversary (對手). If the Americans wanted to dispel (消除) this notion, they needed a multi-orbital (多軌道的) flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad (發射台) at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators (目擊者) watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television. After separating from its launching rocket (火箭), the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule (膠囊、太空艙) entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous (超棒的)."

During Friendship 7's first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule's tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control (任務控制中心) determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor (結晶化的水蒸汽) released by the capsule's air-conditioning system (空調系統). Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7's automatic control system (自動控制系統) began to malfunction (失效), sending the capsule into erratic (不穩定的) movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control andregained (重新獲得) command of the craft.

Toward the end of Glenn's third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield (隔熱層) on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense (超高的、巨大的) speed, the capsule would be incinerated (被焚化) if the shield failed to absorb (吸收) and dissipate (發散) the extremely high reentry temperatures (重新返回地球的溫度). It was decided that the craft's retrorockets (反向推力火箭), usually jettisoned (被拋棄)before reentry, would be left on (被留下) in order to better secure (保護) the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into (撞入) Earth's atmosphere.

During Glenn's fiery (燃燒著) descent back to Earth, the straps (帶子) holding the retrorockets gave way and flapped violently by (劇烈地拍打) his window as a shroud (護套) of ions (離子) caused by excessive (過度的) friction enveloped (包裹著)the spacecraft, causing Glenn to lose radio contact with mission control. As mission control anxiously waited for theresumption (恢復) of radio transmissions that would indicate Glenn's survival, he watched flaming chunks (大塊) of retrorocket fly by his window. After four minutes of radio silence, Glenn's voice crackled (爆裂的) through loudspeakers at mission control, and Friendship 7 splashed down (墜入水中) safely in the Atlantic Ocean. He was picked up by the USSdestroyer (驅逐艦) Noa, and his first words upon stepping out of the capsule and onto the deck (甲板) of the Noa were, "It was hot in there." He had spent nearly five hours in space.

Glenn was hailed as a national hero (國家英雄), and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. He later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade (盛大的歡迎遊行) in New York City.

Out of a reluctance (遲疑) to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded (中止) the "Clean Marine" in the years after his historic flight. Frustrated with (感到挫折的) this uncharacteristic (不尋常的) lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy (候選) for the U.S. Senate (美國參議員) from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear (內耳)in a fall. In 1970, following a stint (工作期限) as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again but lost theDemocratic nomination (民主黨提名) to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought (尋求) the Democratic nomination for president.

In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload (酬載) specialist (專家) on the space shuttle Discovery (發現者號太空梭). On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging (老化). In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms (連續的任期) in office, a record for the state of Ohio.