jump-suit:

GODSPEED, MAGNET ASS.

moderation:

John Glenn, A Hero Well Before Orbiting Earth

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Fifty years ago, John Glenn was alone on top of a rocket waiting to blast into space and around the Earth. In these times, when people can become suddenly famous for doing so little, it may be good to recall the daring and imagination of that moment on Feb. 20, 1962.

Two Russians, Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, had already dauntlessly orbited the Earth. The Soviets kept their missions secret until they were under way, but John Glenn would fly with the eyes of the world watching every second.

He was a hero before he ever pulled on a silver spacesuit. John Glenn was a small-town guy from the heart of America — New Concord, Ohio, population 2,651, and they’re very proud — who left Muskingham College to enlist when he was just 20 and Pearl Harbor was bombed.

He became a U.S. Marine fighter pilot in the South Pacific — which is a long way from New Concord — flying 59 missions during World War II, and then 90 more in Korea, where his wingman was Ted Williams, a mere Hall of Fame baseball player.

John Glenn was a mild-drinking, clean-joking, fair-haired flyboy among fighter jocks, but his fellow pilots hailed him respectfully as Magnet Ass, for all the shrapnel his plane took.

(via NPR) (listen)

At least he didn’t get “Squarehead.” Or “Shaky.”

(via spaceandstuffidk)