NASA announced Thursday, Thomas K. Mattingly, a key
commander during the Apollo 16 mission to the moon,
died on October 31 at age 87.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said “Astronaut Mattingly
was key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his
shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout
history."
Mattingly in Navy uniform.
Apollo 16
Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit
the Earth, Senator John Herschel Glenn Jr.was launched into
space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle
Discovery on October 29, 1998.
At 77 years of age, Glenn was 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.
The crew of space shuttle Discovery mission STS-95,
including John Glenn. On this flight, Glenn became
the oldest person to fly in space. NASA
On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H.
White II opened the hatch of the Gemini 4 and stepped out of
the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in
space. Attached to the craft by a 25-foot tether and controlling
his movements with a hand-held oxygen jet-propulsion gun,
White remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes.
White had been preceded by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A.
Leonov, who on March 18, 1965, was the first man ever to
walk in space.
Edward Higgins White II
(November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967)
On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space
capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel
into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes
and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,
was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA).
(FOXNEWS) – John Glenn, Marine Corps combat pilot, pioneer
of human exploration and later a longtime United States senator,
became the first American to orbit the Earth on this day in history,
Feb. 20, 1962.
"Glenn’s ride into space, a great technical accomplishment, held
even greater significance for the country," says the website of the
John & Annie Glenn Museum in the astronaut’s hometown of New Concord, Ohio.
Astronaut John Glenn photographed in space by an
automatic sequence motion picture camera during
his historic orbital flight on "Friendship 7."
