50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic earth orbit

[gghc87]

Well yesterday actually.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/glenn50/

[Guest WausauLotus]

Probably wrong on the dates but:

Isn't it hard to believe that 1st flight 1914, obrital flight 1962 and moon landing 1969?,,,,,,,where will we be as humans in another 100 years? Wish I could be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ramjet]

So we have all these things happening that were in movies first. Air travel, space travel etc.

When do Soylent Green and Logans Run kick in?

[molemot]

And 1969 was when it all came to a grinding halt. Since then we've been going backwards....the only manned launch system available at the moment is the Russian one, which is broadly the same as that used by Gagarin. The Americans have no manned launch capability, neither do the Europeans....the Chinese can, but the "free world" can no longer put people into orbit. The International Space Station is a magnificent sight to see, on a good visible pass, but it's only just outside the atmosphere - being some 400km/250 miles up. An easy 4 hour drive.....gone are the days of lunar exploration, men out of sight of the home planet being on the far side of their lunar orbit. All the great advances that were made in the years from 1903 when the Wright Brothers first staggered airborne (not 1914!) to 1969 and "One small step..." have not been surpassed since; modern aeroplanes have far less performance than Concorde had, before it was scrapped, and are simply transportation devices moving large numbers of people cheaply around the globe fast enough to be acceptable...which is all that's needed.

The spark of engineering adventure has dulled...but things like the Bloodhound landspeed record vehicle are keeping it alive, albeit with a struggle. I don't think I shall live to see a manned mission to Mars; 50 years ago I thought I'd be there by now!!