Published: February 20, 2012 Updated: February 20, 2012 - 12:00 AM ? ?Comments | Post a Comment
It is difficult to remember today's 50th anniversary of John Glenn orbiting the Earth without considering the journey we all have taken since that morning.
Tampa was just another southern town on Feb. 20, 1962. None of today's silver skyscrapers were on the horizon, and there was little reason to have a football stadium larger than the old Phillips Field north of the University of Tampa campus. The interstate highways that would connect Tampa with the rest of the country still were under construction.
There was no Walt Disney World. The big attractions at Busch Gardens were the bird show and free beer.
Florida's population was less than one-third of the more than 19 million people who pack the coastlines and cities today.
What was going on across the state at Cape Canaveral was — at least for the moment — diverting attention from a Cold War that would heat up that summer into what would be called the Cuban Missile Crisis. That was when Tampans watched as military trucks rolled down Dale Mabry Highway toward MacDill Air Force Base and locals put emergency supplies in their car trunks, not knowing what might happen.
* * * * *At the Cape, the space race between the two superpowers was on and we were losing. The Soviets had shocked the world by putting up the first artificial satellite while the United States seemed unable to do much right.
The Soviets followed up on Sputnik by sending Yuri Gagarin on the first manned trip around the globe. The United States, which was conducting its program live on television for everyone to see, appeared to be trailing in the race for the ultimate prize … landing a man on the Moon.
Back in Tampa the high school graduating classes of 1962 faced an uncertain future. The Cold War was getting scarier as both sides loaded up on nuclear missiles that could wipe out entire cities. And across the planet in a place called Vietnam, U.S. soldiers were beginning to show up in numbers.
But there was something energizing and compelling about the space race that even filtered down to high school classes that year. We sat around black-and-white TV screens mesmerized by each launch.
When Glenn squeezed into his tiny Friendship 7 capsule that was strapped onto a converted military missile and blasted off for three orbits around the Earth, it was an event that captured all Americans and created a hero for our times.
* * * * *It seems ironic that five decades later the only Americans in space are the ones who ride Russian spacecraft. Last week the Chinese announced plans to send three people into space to connect to the first stages of their own space station, with longer range plans to land men on the Moon.
Meanwhile the American space program is lost in the universe of politics. Glenn, now 90, has been critical of the program he was so much a part of 50 years ago today.
At least we can look back and smile at the words of Glenn's fellow Mercury astronaut, Scott Carpenter, from the nearby blockhouse as Glenn was strapped into the capsule and the launch sequence moved down to zero. "Godspeed John Glenn'' Carpenter said. Glenn heard the words, and followed through.
sotto@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7809
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