All Systems Look Like a Go for Glenn Flight

Forget for a minute the shaky science, the cynics, Hurricane Mitch, the threatening meteor shower and even the six cockroaches and the mutant tomato seeds that also will be on board.

Today, with the world watching, John Glenn is due to rocket away from Earth for the second time in his illustrious career and return to space as history’s oldest astronaut.

With blastoff set for 11 a.m. PST, the shuttle Discovery is poised to carry Glenn, the 77-year-old Democratic senator from Ohio, and his six crew mates into orbit for the start of a nine-day mission.

And the weather forecast could not be more favorable for Florida. A massive dome of high pressure was parked over the southeastern United States, all but guaranteeing cloudless skies in central Florida. Hurricane Mitch was 800 miles away, pounding Mexico, Honduras and Belize.

If today’s launch were to be scrubbed, NASA officials said, the mission could be reset for Friday. However, further delays could put the shuttle in the way of an unusually severe Leonids meteor shower, forecast to begin Nov. 17.

The geriatric research centered on the man who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the Earth may be but a small step for mankind, but Glenn is providing a giant boost for the space program. Expected to be on hand for today’s launch are President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, at least 70 members of Congress, a media horde of more than 3,000 reporters and the largest crowd of onlookers in years.

Anonymous threats, apparently directed at Clinton, have prompted tight security searches of vehicles entering Kennedy Space Center. “We’ve had some unspecified threats and we’ve had some, what we call Category 3 threats . . . so we’re taking it very seriously,” said Paul Morris, chief of security at the space center. “A Category 3 threat is a person who has made a threat against the president of the United States.”

Major traffic problems are anticipated as up to 300,000 spectators vie for prime viewing spots along the beaches, causeways and riverfronts that lie to the west of Kennedy Space Center. Local schools have offered students the option of skipping classes.

“I have been pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of interest in this flight,” Glenn said Monday after he and the other astronauts arrived from Houston aboard T-38 training jets. “It’s really gratifying to see people getting so fired up about the space program again”

Largely ignored in the hoopla surrounding Glenn’s historic ride are the others on board: shuttle commander Curtis L. Brown, 42, who has made four previous space flights; Scott E. Parazynski, 37, a doctor who has flown twice before; Steven W. Lindsey, 38, an Air Force pilot making his second trip to space; engineer Stephen K. Robinson, 43, a veteran of one previous flight; Chiaki Mukai, 46, a Japanese cardiovascular surgeon who has flown once before; and Pedro Duque, 35, a Spaniard and space rookie.

While in space, Discovery’s crew will conduct 83 tasks and research projects--including the release of two satellites, the use of ultraviolet telescopes to scan the solar system and the setting up of a miniature greenhouse.

The passenger cockroaches are the subjects of a $5,000 Lanham, Md., high school study to see if the bugs can reproduce in weightlessness. The 60 genetically altered tomato seeds are the focus of a University of Connecticut experiment that asks if reduced levels of ethylene, a stress hormone, could mean that tomatoes could be grown on long space journeys.

Glenn, who will become the oldest person in space by 16 years, is to take part in 10 experiments designed to compare the aging process on Earth to that in weightlessness. He will undergo tests for balance and bone and muscle loss, and will be wired to a host of monitors while sleeping and awake. Parazynski, who trained as an emergency room physician, is to draw so many blood samples from the former Marine Corps fighter pilot that Glenn now calls him “Igor” and “Count Parazynski.”

“If we learn something of benefit, at this stage of my life, then I look at being a guinea pig as very, very good,” Glenn said during an interview last week at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

However, Glenn was deemed unqualified to participate in one experiment to test the effects of the hormone melatonin on sleep in space, and that has fueled the arguments of critics who say his assignment as a payload specialist is merely a payoff for his loyalty to the Democratic Party during his 24 years in the Senate.

“If there is any science here, it is bad science,” said Duke University history professor Alex Roland, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration historian. “Everybody knows what is going on: A distinguished public servant at the end of his career is being given a victory lap.

“What I object to is that this trivializes the space program, and is embarrassing to NASA because it makes it look like they don’t know science. And they do.”

The public also may be skeptical of the scientific merit of Glenn’s return to space. A poll published this week by a Cocoa Beach newspaper, Florida Today, found that only 29% gave the mission much respect as research. Only 17% saw it as valuable for the space program. But 77% said they would be watching when Discovery lifts off.

Glenn, along with NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin, has had to defend the decision to give a septuagenarian a seat on Discovery. Some of the experiments “may sound far out,” said Glenn, but “all of this has an application back . . . on Earth.”

The Glenn flight is more risky than usual, experts contend, because of the five months that have passed since the last shuttle launch--much longer than the normal six-week interval.

And Glenn, admittedly less flexible than his fellow astronauts, could be a liability in an emergency.

Even Glenn’s wife, Annie, and his children have acknowledged misgivings about the venture. In an interview here this week, Glenn’s 53-year-old son, David, a family physician, said news of his father’s return to space conjured up images of the 1986 Challenger explosion in which seven crew members died. “I just watched it over and over again,” he said.

He added that he has since focused on NASA’s safety record in successfully launching 66 shuttles since Challenger. The performance, he said, “is as close to perfect as you can imagine it possibly being, so I’ve sort of gotten beyond seeing that replay in my head.”

Times researchers Lianne Hart in Houston and Anna M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.

Shuttle on the Web

* Live video coverage of today’s blastoff with John Glenn aboard the shuttle Discovery can be viewed on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/glenn

* REACHING FOR THE STARS: Jerrie Cobb, who almost became the first female astronaut, still wants to fly in space. E1

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Glenn Launch on Television

Among the television channels offering coverage of John Glenn’s space launch, scheduled for 11 a.m. PST today:

ABC: 10:30 a.m., anchored by Peter Jennings with Wally Schirra and Gene Cernan

CBS: 10:30 a.m., anchored by Dan Rather with Gordon Cooper and Bill Harwood

NBC: 10 a.m., anchored by Tom Brokaw with Scott Carpenter and Bob Hager

CNN: 10 a.m., anchored by Miles O’Brien and Walter Cronkite

Discovery: 10:30 a.m., anchored by Steve Aveson with Jerry Linenger and Blaine Hammond

Fox News Channel: 6 a.m., anchored by Jon Scott with James Lovell

MSNBC: 6 a.m., with Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer

Associated Press