John Glenn and sunrises in space

Have you ever seen the movie The Right Stuff about the early years of the U.S. space program? If you have, maybe you remember John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the earth in his capsule, Friendship 7. I remember the movie, having watched it as a kid over and over.

Last night, my lovely wife and I went to hear Mr. Glenn speak at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. For those of you who don't know, other than being the first American to orbit the Earth, he is the oldest person to fly (at age 77 in 1998 on the Shuttle Discovery), and was a U.S. Senator for twenty-four years (D-Ohio). Both Jessica and I thought he gave a good talk. I especially liked the narrated 'home movie' of his most recent trip into space, which he recommends for everybody, especially the elderly.

He says the views of sunrises and sunsets in space are out of this world, with different colors than those seen on Earth's surface.

He also shared other views of Earth and space.

For instance, as one who cares about the future of the space program, he emphasized that the Shuttle and International Space Station are primarily for research. On each mission, each crewmember has a schedule broken down into 5 minute blocks (talk about micromanaging one's time!). Most of these are dedicated to scientific experiments. He agrees with Bush that we should go to the Moon and on to Mars, but disagrees with Bush's plan to dedicate all of the research on the Shuttle and space station toward that goal. He wholeheartedly believes the scientific research should continue. Furthermore, he believes that robotic craft can only do so much research and human pioneers must go follow and further investigate where the robot scouts have gone.

Regarding education, he says that America is falling behind, especially in the areas of math and science. He mentioned an interesting study of 43 nations which showed that from kindergarten to fourth grade, American students are among the top three nations in terms of math and science ability. But by the time American students graduate high school, their rank drops to among the bottom three! He says the countries that are beating us have a nationalized public school system with high nationally set standards and believes we must do the same to stay competitive in this era of globalization. He thinks No Child Left Behind is a good step in this direction, but as Bush cut much of its funding, it will not be able to work. As it stands, it will set high goals for students, without providing educators the resources to accomplish those goals.

Politically, he considers himself a centrist, representing the middle two-thirds of Americans. Regarding the current administration, he says there has been a reversal between the parties. The Republicans are now the big government, huge debt, foreign entanglement party (suggesting that the Democrats used to fill this role). He urged everyone who wanted a balanced budget to vote Democrat next time.

He had other things to say about what America and politics is about, but I don't want to take up too much space (ha!).

Finally, on the spiritual front, he was asked what, if anything, he learned from going to space. He said, first of all, he didn't expect that he would see God on his "trip to heaven." But as a believer already, he said his trips to space only deepened his existing faith (he's Presbyterian). He also mentioned that one of the Apollo astronauts, whose name escapes me, 'found God on the Moon.' I guess it's a bit like finding God in the desert... albeit a grey lonely, lifeless desert far from home where you can't breathe. A dire situation like that might make any one of us turn to God!