John Glenn Reunites with Mercury Team - 50th Anniversary
Discussion
In the late 70s John Glenn became a US senator. There was some kind of exchange programme where senators and MPs went to work with each other for a couple of weeks. Our local MP got teamed up with John Glenn, so he went over to Washington to shadow Glenn and then Glenn came back over here to shadow him.
I was brought up by my gran and we'd moved to a new block of council flats in 1977. But the contractors hadn't finished the communal gardens, and it was just a wasteground when it was meant to have shrubs and plants and stuff.
My grandad had worked at Brent town hall so knew our MP so he told him about the communal gardens. And it so happend that one afternoon our MP came round to see for himself, with John Glenn in tow. I got back from school and my gran, our MP and Glenn were sitting round the kitchen table with cups of tea and some jaffa cakes. My gran had no clue who he was but I was into all that stuff so knew straight away. He was a complete gent, and we spoke for about 15 mins about NASA and his career. I remember saying to my gran "this is John Glenn the former astronaught, he went to the moon" to which she replied, completely unimpressed, "you could have saved the bother and spent some time in our communal gardens...look at the state of them, it's a bloody disgrace."
Anyway, soon they were on their way...blocked drains in Neasden or something. Imagine going form astronaught and national hero to looking at blocked drains and dodgy council house gardens in N.W. London. What a come down.
I was brought up by my gran and we'd moved to a new block of council flats in 1977. But the contractors hadn't finished the communal gardens, and it was just a wasteground when it was meant to have shrubs and plants and stuff.
My grandad had worked at Brent town hall so knew our MP so he told him about the communal gardens. And it so happend that one afternoon our MP came round to see for himself, with John Glenn in tow. I got back from school and my gran, our MP and Glenn were sitting round the kitchen table with cups of tea and some jaffa cakes. My gran had no clue who he was but I was into all that stuff so knew straight away. He was a complete gent, and we spoke for about 15 mins about NASA and his career. I remember saying to my gran "this is John Glenn the former astronaught, he went to the moon" to which she replied, completely unimpressed, "you could have saved the bother and spent some time in our communal gardens...look at the state of them, it's a bloody disgrace."
Anyway, soon they were on their way...blocked drains in Neasden or something. Imagine going form astronaught and national hero to looking at blocked drains and dodgy council house gardens in N.W. London. What a come down.
Skii said:
Awesome story! (He didn't go the moon though..)
Yes, that was after his time. I was just making a point to my gran. He orbited the Earth, at a time when nobody was that sure you'd ever get back. Was involved in Apollo moon trips but not as an astronaught. Whatever he did, it was better than looking at blocked drains in Neasden.And he was an "astroNAUT", not an "astroNAUGHT" 
The word "astronaut" comes from the greek - meaning "space voyager". The ship name "Nautilus" and "Argonaut" also derive from ancient Greek in the same way. It's got nothing to do with "numbers" or "zeros".
Glenn resigned from NASA not long after his one and only Mercury flight and never flew in the Gemini or Apollo programmes. He famously returned to space as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle in 1998.
The word "astronaut" comes from the greek - meaning "space voyager". The ship name "Nautilus" and "Argonaut" also derive from ancient Greek in the same way. It's got nothing to do with "numbers" or "zeros".Glenn resigned from NASA not long after his one and only Mercury flight and never flew in the Gemini or Apollo programmes. He famously returned to space as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle in 1998.
Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 20th February 14:27
John_S4x4 said:
So why is it that Russian spacemen are call Cosmonauts and not Astronuats ? Same go for China ?
Is it just a western thing to use Greek terms for spacemen ?
Cosmonaut and astronaut are both of Greek origin. I think they just wanted to be different, it was the Cold War at the time after all. Westerners have coined 'taikonaut' for the Chinese, but I don't think they use it themselves, although I stand to be corrected.Is it just a western thing to use Greek terms for spacemen ?
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