Fifty years ago today, John Glenn became a rocket man

I didn't realize it until I saw Beyond Apollo's post about it, but today marks the fiftieth anniversary of John Glenn being blasted off into orbit. Certainly, he wasn't the first man in space - that honor goes to the late Yuri Gagarin - nor was he the first American in space - that would be Alan Shepherd - but he was the first in this country to orbit the big blue mothership, so that made him a hero during the early days of the space race.

My hat off in humble respect to John Glenn and everyone who has journeyed into the final frontier, regardless of who they are or where they are from. Same goes to the ground crew and everyone behind the scenes, who never get enough of the credit, in my opinion.