6 Feb. 20,2009 Missileer


Complex 14 and our first man in orbit


 By Mark Cleary
 45th SW tHstonj oqffi
 On Feb. 20. 1962 Lt. Col. John Glenn. Jr.,
USMC, became the first American to orbit Earth.
The way had been prepared for him by astro
nauls Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom, who
completed two Mercury Redsl one suborbital
manned missions in May and July 1961 respec-
tively. Colonel Gletm was launched from Cape
Canaveral's Complex 14 aboard a 3,000-poumd
Mercury capsule mated to a "man-rated" Atlas
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) modi
fled for the Mercury-Atlas program. The flight
lasted four hours and 55 minutes, and it met all
of its objectives. After three orbits the capsule
splashed down in the planned recovery area,
and Glenn. Inside his spacecraft, was recovered
approximately 17 minutes later. Colonel Glenn
came through the mission In "excellent shape."
 Then as now, manned space missions were
major events. Three days after Glenn's record
flight. President John Kemnedy and an entourage
including Vice President Lyndon Johnson vis-
ited Cape Canaveral to participate in a ceremony
honoring Glenn with NASA's Distinguished
Service Medal, President Kennedy returned to
the Cape in September 1962 with an even larger
group of dignitaries (including Vice President
Johnson, Ilfense Secretary McNamara, and
members of the I .S. Senate and House SnaeP


 History Highlights

Committees) to receive briefings on major space
programs.
 Complex 14 supported three more Mercury
Atlas 'man in space' missions in 1962 and 1963.
The astronauts who flew those missions were
Scott Carpenter. Walter "Wally" Schlrra and L.
Gordon Cooper. Seven unmanned Atlas-Agena
target vehicles also lifted off Complex 14 In 1965
and 1966 to support various manned Gemini
missions launched from Complex 19 In the same
period, The complex was deactivated In February
1967, but it served as a support facility for Atlas
launches conducted from its neighbor. Complex
13. The site became a national landmark in
1984. and Its blockhouse was refurbished at the
end of the 1990s. A ribbon cutting ceremony
for the blockhouse's new conference center was
attended by Mrs. Betty Grissom and astronauts
Scott Carpenter and L. Cordon Cooper on May
10, 1998.
 In the meantime. Senator John Glenn


W -


John Glenn is helped into the Mercury spacecraft
"Friendship 7" during prelaunch activities in 1962.
returned to the Cape Feb. 20, 1980 to unveil
the "Mercury 7"' monument on Complex 14. The
silvered monument featured the number "7" in
the oval portion of a 13-foot-tall rendering of
the chemical symbol for the element mercury.
Veteran astronauts Wally Schirra and L. Gordon
Cooper, space officials, and other dignitaries also
attended the unveiling.


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