Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 6

6A FLORIDA TODAY, Sunday, November 8, 1998 AN AMERICAN HERO'S RETURN FROM SPACE 'One-g and I feel Glenn says upon landing v- ill i 1 i i if I i.4 wn in A ii ill iniL Glenn also is evidence to a disheartened American public that a hero can come from Washington, DC. "He has shown us that we are capable of better stuff," said William Burrows, author of several space books including This New Ocean. "People need to get lifted out of their everyday lives and identify with voyages of bravery and exploration. "So you can pooh-pooh it all you want and say it's a NASA publicity stunt, which it is, or say (Glenn's) science isn't all that great, which it isn't. But the fact remains that it's still a very stirring thing, an ennobling thing, and I think this country needs that." Others also see great symbolic value in Glenn's work.

As the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, he is fittingly part of the last shuttle flight before NASA and the nation enter the new era of the space station. "In a lot of respects, ever since Sen. Glenn's first flight, we've been learning how to fly in space," said Roger Launius, NASA historian at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Now we're ready to move onto the next stage, which is a permanent presence in space, and I think Discovery's mission symbolizes the transition from one period to the next." The last day of Discovery's flight started at 4 a.m. Saturday, when the crew awoke and got busy with preparations for the ride home.

By 10:30 a.m., potentially high crosswinds died down at KSC's landing strip, and Discovery commander Curt Brown was given approval to fly his ship to Florida. Brown and pilot Steve Lindsey fired up the shuttle's maneuvering engines shortly after 11 a.m, sending the spaceship on an hourlong dive through the atmosphere. Glenn made the ride back from a windowless seat in Discovery's middeck, where he sat with crew-mates Pedro Duque and Chiaki Mukai. At about 400,000 feet, Glenn again fell under the grip of gravity while his spaceship was flying at 25 times the speed of sound. Brown guided the ship home, and to the relief of agency officials, Discovery's drag chute was not released during the descent.

The chute's door had fallen off at launch, and the crew was instructed to release the parachute quickly if it accidentally deployed at any point during the landing. Because they were uncertain of its condition, officials decided not to use the chute on touchdown. Discovery hit the ground at 12:04 p.m. and rolled to a stop while hundreds of onlookers, including members of a high school band from Glenn's home state of Ohio, cheered and clapped. Among them was NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, who said the flight hasn't made the agency committed yet to conducting more research on aging.

He said scientists will need at least a year to assess the findings of Glenn's work. One thing is certain, Goldin said: Shuttle seats won't be open to any other civilians in the near future. "We will only fly somebody who has a scientific contribution to make or if there is a significant reason to send them," Goldin said. "We are not going to just send celebrities into space." With the flight over, Glenn will finally get a chance to spend more time with His wife, Annie. As soon as possible, she said she wants the two of them to take a trip and just be "Mr.

and Mrs. John Glenn" again. "What amazed me is the attention he is getting," Annie Glenn said earlier in the week. "I wasn't prepared for that, and it makes me wonder what it's going to be like after he comes home." Glenn summed up his feelings this way before leaving space: "Older people have dreams, too, and they can work toward them. I think many older folks live by the calendar.

They expected to become couch potatoes at a certain time in their lives, so many of them do when they could be just as active and let their lives be set by what they're capable of doing and not by what the calendar says." GLENN, From 1A But the long-terra significance of Glenn's foray remains to be seen. Some observers think its legacy will be the inspiration Glenn has given senior citizens. Others think the attention could lead to more public support and money for NASA and its programs. Still, others believe the mission will fade away quickly. Like a shooting star, they maintain the flight was a momentary flash, touching those who caught a glimpse of it but not turning people into regular stargazers.

Consider this: Fewer than 100 journalists have signed up so far to watch Endeavour's maiden space station launch. In contrast, 3,791 reporters turned out for Glenn's liftoff. "This will all fizzle out," said Cookie Oberg, a Houston-based author of several space books. "This is an insignificant mission compared overall to the 92 (shuttle) launches to date. Sure, it got more publicity, but publicity stunts don't translate into more money from Congress." Others disagree.

They think Glenn will engender more interest in human space travel, and therefore, bring greater attention to NASA's space station. "Glenn's mission allows America and the world's public to focus for a few days on what has been done in space and what is yet to come," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "The net result of that focusing will be a more positive attitude about the space station and its potential benefits." Whether or not NASA gains anything from the mission, Glenn surely chalked up one for seniors. Smiling and floating in orbit for nine days, his robust health was undeniably impressive. "This will be a big awakening to much of the world that the human body is really a 100-year machine if it's treated right, "said Dr.

Stanley Mohler, director of the aerospace medicine program at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY NASA ENGINEERS look over Discovery's parachute partment fell off during liftoff. As it turned out, the chute compartment Saturday at KSC. The door to the com- was not deployed during landing. For KSC visitors, being there By John Tuohy FLORIDA TODAY CAPE CANAVERAL It was a little like watching a baseball game on television from underneath the grandstand.

The hundreds of people who streamed into Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Center on Saturday didn't expect a bird's eye view of shuttle Discovery's landing, but at least they were in the ballpark. Just being part of the atmosphere was good enough for them. "This one is a big deal," said Michael Brown, 37, of Toronto, who came with his wife Sherry, 37, son Jordan, 4, and daughter Shawna, 8. mwn "This is good for the kids to see. It's probably the most exciting thing they've seen to date." The excitement didn't match Discovery's launch nine days ago, when an estimated 250,000 people jammed Brevard County's coastline to see 77-year-old John Glenn and six crewmates blastoff.

But at a distance of four miles from the landing strip, the Browns were as close as the public could get. "We are interested in the space program, but we are not fanatics," Sherry Brown said. "This is nice." About two minutes before landing, a murmur went through the crowd as the descending spacecraft was spotted in the Cards available at (mm I I sill I was enough clear blue sky. Seconds later, hundreds of people stood with one arm extended upward and the other shading their eyes. Suddenly, two sonic booms jolted them as Discovery broke the sound barrier.

Along State Road 405, cars pulled to the side of the causeway as people paused to gawk at the returning spaceship. Boaters in the Indian and Banana rivers also looked up. Todd Clifford, 22, and Patricia Smith, 20, of Vancouver, Canada, felt they had witnessed history. "This is something you can go back home and tell people you were a part of," Clifford said. "We have big-time interest in this stuff and this feeds our fascination." participating 7-Eleven locations Mobility.

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