Free The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11 by Jeffrey Smith

stations were located at Cape Canaveral, Bermuda, the Canary Islands, Nigeria, Zanzibar, a Navy vessel in the Indian Ocean, Australia, Canton Island, Hawaii, the California coast, the White Sands Proving Ground, Mexico, Corpus Christi, and Eglin Air Force Base (in the Florida panhandle). Manning the global tracking stations was a massive undertaking, involving some 19,000 individuals.
    Over the course of 4 hours and 56 seconds, travelling at a velocity of 25,730 feet per second, Glenn completed 3 full orbits. At this incredible speed, the astronaut witnessed multiple transitions from day to night, and found that each space day lasted only 45 minutes. While in space, Glenn consumed parts of 2 separate meals, proving that digestive and metabolic processes were functional in a weightless environment. During the first orbit, the spacecraft’s altitude control system malfunctioned, causing the capsule to drift off course. Shifting to manual control, Glenn was able to correct the errant flight path.
    A startling reminder of the dangers associated with space travel arose prior to the conclusion of Glenn’s first full orbit. Friendship 7’s alarm system indicated that the spacecraft’s ablative heat shield and compressed landing pack were not engaged in the locked position. If the shield did not remain in place, the capsule would burn up during the re-entry phase. NASA flight controllers did not fully inform Glenn of the seriousness of the situation, an unforgivable sin in the eyes of an experienced pilot. Instead, ground control instructed Glenn not to jettison the retrorockets used to position the spacecraft at the correct angle of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, with hopes that the metal straps anchoring the rocket pack would help hold the heat shield in place. During the fiery re-entry process, when friction generated by the high temperatures blocked radio transmission from the astronaut to ground control, NASA officials kept their fingers crossed, hoping the heat shield would remain in place. After several anxious minutes, Glenn’s voice was heard over the radio, confirming a safe re-entry. While the retrorockets and their supporting straps had burned up, the ablative heat shield remained in place and protected the capsule during re-entry. A furious Glenn, backed by his fellow astronauts, insisted that NASA keep crewmembers fully informed about equipment malfunctions during future missions.
    John Glenn returned to Earth an even bigger hero than Alan Shepard. When Glenn visited Washington D.C., 250,000 people lined Pennsylvania Avenue to watch him pass. After being honored at the White House, Glenn addressed a joint session of Congress. The Friendship 7 space capsule departed on a worldwide tour, publicizing America’s space exploration milestone.
    The clean-cut, straight-laced, former Marine was the ideal ambassador for the American space program. Charismatic, with excellent communication skills, Glenn proved more valuable as a promoter than a pilot, and President Kennedy soon ordered him removed from the flight roster. Historian, William E. Burrows, perhaps summed it up best: “John Glenn came out of Friendship 7’s inferno as the Lindbergh of his time.”
    Over the course of the next 15 months, three additional Mercury spacecraft were launched into space, and the duration of the orbital flights progressively increased. Deke Slayton had been next on the flight list, but a cardiac arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) took him out of the rotation. Slayton, bitterly disappointed by his medical disqualification, was rewarded with the creation of a new position, Coordinator of Astronaut Activities, which kept him closely involved with future space flights.
    On May 24, 1962, Scott Carpenter was launched into orbit aboard Aurora 7. Carpenter circled the Earth three times and conducted experiments involving liquids in a weightless environment. A malfunction of the automatic flight control system forced Carpenter to pilot the