Feb 23 1962
From The Space Library
In ceremony at Cape Canaveral, President Kennedy thanked the Project Mercury team for the successful flight of FRIENDSHIP 7: ". . . it's my great pleasure to speak on behalf of all our fellow Americans in expressing pride and satisfaction to those intimately involved in this effort. All of us remember a few dates in this century and those of us who were very young remember Col. Lindbergh's flight, Pearl Harbor, and the end of the war, and remember the flight of Alan Shepard, Major Grissom and we remember the flight of Col. Glenn . . ." President Kennedy then awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to Robert R. Gilruth and read the citation, "for his distinguished leadership of the team of scientists and engineers that carried Project Mercury, the U.S. initial manned space flight program, from its inception to the successful accomplishment of man's flight in orbit about the earth . . ." Lt. Col. John H. Glenn also was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal by the President, the citation to which said:" . . made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of human knowledge of space technology and a demonstration of man's capabilities in space flight. Ibis performance was marked by his great professional skill, his skill as a test pilot, his unflinching courage. . . ." In his remarks, Astronaut Glenn thanked fellow astronauts and the entire Mercury organization: "we all acted literally and figuratively as a team. . . . It goes across the board . . . sort of a crosscut of Americana, of industry, and military and civil service. . . . It was headed up by NASA, of course, but thousands and thousands of people have contributed as certainly much or more than I have to the project. . . ."
In later NASA press conference at Cape Canaveral, Astronaut John Glenn described his three-orbit flight. He related his observation, his pilotage during almost two orbits, and his concern when burning fragments of the retrorocket package during re-entry appeared to indicate to him that the heat shield was breaking up. He referred to "weightlessness" as a "very pleasant" sensation to which he is becoming "addicted." Administrator Webb and Director of the Manned Spacecraft. Center, Robert Gilruth, spoke briefly. This conference, like all events associated with the MA-6 flight, was fully covered in all detail by the entire American press, radio, and TV.
12 European nations agreed on draft convention for the creation of a European Space Research Organization. Once signed by member nations (Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain), the organization would cooperate with the U.S.'s NASA and the International Committee on Space Research of which the Soviet Union is a member.
DOD and NASA signed an agreement that neither agency would begin the development of a launch vehicle or a space booster without the written acknowledgment of the other.
Senator Henry M. Jackson in a radio interview said there was evidence that "lives were lost" in the Russian manned space flight program. He urged the Kennedy Administration to challenge the U.S.S.R. to "lay bare" its trials and errors in achieving manned space flight.
Drew Pearson repeated rumors previously published in his column that 5 Soviet cosmonauts may have been killed in manned space flight attempts.
USAF Titan I ICBM launched by military crew at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Reported that two radio hams of Ann Arbor, Mich., J. Schmidt and E. Nuttle, recorded the voice transmissions of Astronaut Glenn during the three-orbit flight of FRIENDSHIP 7.
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