Operation AXIOM | The Stars My Destination

Thirty years ago last Friday, 19 February 1986, the first module of the Mir space station was launched by the Soviet Union. Mir, meaning "Peace," was the first modular space station, & during its operational lifetime (1986-2001) was the largest artificial satellite in existence; Mir's crews also set records for longest-duration human spaceflights & longest continuous human presence, records only later surpassed by the International Space Station (I.S.S.). The Mir would survive the demise of the Soviet Union & would continue in Russian service for years past its design life. The space station was finally de-orbited in 2001 due to the reallocation of the resources necessary to maintain the aging station's hardware to the construction of the new I.S.S. The first of Mir's eventual seven module was launched into orbit, thirty years ago last week.

Fifty-four years ago last Saturday, 20 February 1962, John Glenn (born 1921) became the first American (& third human, after two Soviet cosmonauts) to orbit the Earth, aboard his Mercury spacecraft, the Friendship 7. Colonel Glenn, U.S.M.C., was the third astronaut from the original "Mercury Seven" to fly in space, after Alan Shepard & "Gus" Grissom, though both Shepard's & Grissom's flights had been suborbital (aboard the Freedom 7 & Liberty Bell 7, respectively). Such was Glenn's fame upon his return to terra firma that he was not again permitted to fly in space; whereas Grissom went on to fly the first manned Gemini mission, Gemini 3, as the command pilot of the Molly Brown before dying in the Apollo 1 disaster; & Shepard became the fifth man to walk on the Moon as the commander of Apollo 14 (command module: Kitty Hawk, lunar module: Antares), also becoming the first man to golf on the Moon. Thirty-six years later, while still serving as a United States Senator from Ohio, Glenn finally returned to space as a Payload Specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (O.V.-103) during S.T.S.-95, from 29 October-7 November 1998. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, fifty-four years ago last week.

"Godspeed, John Glenn."—Scott Carpenter