John Glenn: Calm in the Face of Danger

Published Date December 20, 2024
News Type College News
Assistant Professor Carly Dearborn, Public Policy Archivist

By Carly Dearborn

As an archivist managing the Ohio Public Policy Archives at Ohio State, I’ve worked with Sen. John Glenn’s collections so intimately that I often feel I know him, even though I never met him.

He had flown combat missions as a Marine in WWII and the Korean War and, as a Navy test pilot, made the first supersonic transcontinental flight. He wanted to push the limits of the machine he was flying, and he wanted to push his own limits.

So when I look at these experiences prior to his 1962 NASA Friendship 7 flight, it makes complete sense that he would be calm and confident when he had to take control of the capsule as it began to swing left and right, using excessive fuel, after an automatic thruster failure.

Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 spacecraft prior to the launch of NASA’s MA-6 orbital mission, Feb. 20, 1962. (NASA photo) 

Understandably, Glenn and fellow Project Mercury astronauts had not wanted to concede control solely to a machine. They requested that NASA engineers install the three-axis hand controller Glenn had to use as the first American to orbit Earth. 

After the successful mission, NASA gave him this controller and failed thruster, a nod that the astronauts were right in advocating for what they needed. Now, that controller and thruster — the only parts of the capsule that are not at the Smithsonian — is displayed at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs in Page Hall.

It represents Glenn’s personal spirit as well as how the archive collection can help people explore and better understand not only Project Mercury but Glenn’s Discovery mission and his senate career.

Watch John Glenn talk about his orbital flight.

Explore the University Libraries Friendship 7 online exhibit.

Assistant Professor Carly Dearborn is the public policy archivist at The Ohio State University Libraries, where she manages the Ohio Public Policy Archives, which include the John H. Glenn Archives, a collection of official papers and memorabilia donated to the university by Glenn and his family.