50th anniversary of the first American in orbit

A little over a year ago, I think the day after Christmas, 2010, NPR aired a program by NASA about the space program, "Forged in the Stars". The title inspired me to write a song by the same name, which you can hear at
http://www.reverbnation.com/patriciashannon

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/17/godspeed-happy-anniversary-john-glenn/?hpt=hp_c2

February 17th, 2012

NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first American in orbit.

Back in 1959, NASA selected John Glenn as one of the original group of seven astronauts for the Mercury program.

Three years later, he blasted off to the famous words, "Godspeed John Glenn," becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. To honor this landmark, we’re taking a look back at Glenn’s historic flights into space.

On February 20, 1962, Glenn made his famous journey around the planet aboard NASA's Friendship 7 spacecraft. During the nearly five-hour mission, he circled the globe three times.

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Glenn made headlines again in 1998 when he rejoined NASA at age 77 to become the oldest person ever to go into space. Glenn’s trip aboard the shuttle Discovery helped NASA learn about the effects of space flight on older people.

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