October 29, 1998
The elements that make you — the calcium in your bones, the oxygen in your lungs — were scattered across space by dying stars long before...
John Glenn: Friendship 7 To Discovery
Birthday · October 29, 1998
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published October 29, 1998. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Rehearsing for his historic flight on February 20, 1962, Mercury program astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. works in a cramped training capsule preparing for a few hours' voyage through space. Dubbed Friendship 7, his own snug spacecraft was launched by an Atlas rocket and carried Glenn three times around planet Earth at an altitude of about 120 miles, returning him safely to a "splashdown" in the Atlantic Ocean. The first American in orbit, Senator Glenn's remarkable return to space will be 36 years later as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95. Discovery is a roomier craft which will carry a crew of 7 and an array of scientific payloads, such as the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker. Scheduled for launch today at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, Discovery will orbit at an altitude of 320 miles and land after 8 days at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility. Godspeed the crew of STS-95 !