Glenn Expected to Get OK for Return to Space

NASA is expected to announce today that it has reserved a seat aboard one of its space shuttles for John Glenn, the Ohio senator who was the first American to orbit Earth almost 36 years ago.

Glenn has been pushing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a chance to return to orbit, asserting that such a mission could provide valuable insights into the human aging process.

Although space agency officials dodged questions Thursday about Glenn’s flight, they plan to make the official announcement at a press conference scheduled today at NASA headquarters, according to agency and Senate sources. Glenn’s flight may come as early as October, aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

The decision on whether to send Glenn into space was ostensibly left to NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, but he came under intense political pressure from Congress and within the Clinton administration to approve the mission, according to knowledgeable sources.

Asked Thursday about the impending NASA announcement, Glenn told reporters: “I understand there is a great deal of interest in this matter, but today I have no comment on it. I look forward to discussing this in the future.”

Many quickly hailed the expected decision, but some critics dismissed it as a publicity ploy of virtually no scientific value.

Although Glenn is in excellent physical condition, he will turn 77 in July, 16 years older than any human who has so far ventured into the weightlessness of orbit. NASA has no explicit age rules for spaceflight, but it has never allowed any of its career astronauts to fly after the age of 60.

“If he is healthy, he will probably withstand the flight, but somebody at his age is many times more likely to have a problem than somebody who is even 60,” said Dr. Norman Thagard, a medical doctor and former astronaut who studied weightlessness aboard the Mir space station on a 115-day mission.

But a spaceflight by Glenn could also capture the imagination and hearts of Americans, many of whom can vividly recall his first flight in the darkest days of the Cold War. The entire nation came to a standstill in February 1962 to watch the historic flight on black-and-white television sets.

When Glenn returned to Earth the same day he left after three short orbits of his Mercury space capsule, he became an instant hero and was later honored in a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan.

Although Glenn wanted to make another flight at the time, space and political officials rejected putting such a large-scale hero at risk. Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who holds the distinction of being the first human in space, died in 1968 in the crash of a jet during a training flight.

Glenn’s place in history may provide a unique justification for a flight now, making it far more than a NASA publicity stunt that would only damage the agency’s credibility, according to Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society.

“There is a social value in what he is doing,” Friedman said. “He has a perspective that is unique, and a lot of people will be interested in what he has to say about being back in space.”

Even John Pike, a space expert at the Federation of American Scientists and a frequent NASA critic, said the Glenn flight is bound to inject some excitement into the space agency.

“The upside is the right stuff,” Pike said, referring to the book and movie about the early astronauts.

Nonetheless, many space and science experts said they can see no technical justification and significant political risk in granting Glenn a flight.

“I can see no scientific value at all,” said John Mansfield, former associate administrator at NASA for technology and space utilization. By granting a flight to a powerful senator, NASA would only further alienate the community of space advocates who are clamoring for expanded and lower-cost access to space, Mansfield said.

NASA is expected to justify Glenn’s flight as offering a unique insight into how weightlessness affects the human body as it ages. Glenn’s training and flight in 1962 were rigorously documented, and he has said that the data could be compared with how his body reacts now.

Until now, NASA’s medical research has focused on the effects of months or years of weightlessness on humans, a precursor to a manned mission to Mars. The agency has shown scant interest in how space affects aging or older astronauts in general.

“Do we care if there is an effect on people as they age?” Thagard said. “Are we going to fly a bunch of 76-year-olds? It is of virtually no value from a medical research standpoint.”

The last time NASA allowed a non-astronaut to fly on a shuttle was on the ill-fated 1986 Challenger flight that took the life of schoolteacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

“They have to make the case that it is in the national interest and that his condition belies his age,” said Albert Wheelon, a member of the commission that investigated the Challenger disaster.

Some critics also see the NASA approval of Glenn’s flight as a political payback for the Democratic senator’s role as the leading critic of the Republican-led congressional investigation into the Clinton administration’s fund-raising activities in the 1996 elections.

“What did Glenn do this summer? Obstruct the investigation into the Clinton administration’s fund-raising,” said Alcestis Oberg, a space journalist and author.

But Senate GOP leaders took a different tack Thursday.

“I am very pleased,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and a leading advocate of fund-raising reform. “John Glenn is one of the last American heroes, and I think this is a proper and fitting way for him to ride off into the sunset.”

Glenn made a bid for the White House in 1984. His political career was marred later in the 1980s by his involvement as one of the Keating Five, the members of Congress who allegedly did political favors for savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr. (Coincidentally, a federal appeals court reinstated Keating’s fraud conviction Thursday.)

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Retro Rocket Man

Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, will reportedly fly aboard the shuttle as early as October which would make him the oldest astronaut in history.

FLIGHT SHEET

Glenn’s Mercury mission

Date: Feb., 1962

Duration: 5 hours

Altitude: 92 miles

MPH: 17,000

Orbit: 90 min.

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Glenn’s shuttle mission

Date: Oct., 1998

Duration: 10 days

Altitude: 115 miles

MPH: 17,000

Orbit: 90 min.

Note: Date and specifications on shuttle flight may vary.