John Glenn and his wife, Annie were in a car accident Saturday morning, but they’re OK. Just minor injuries, and the other driver was unhurt too. ABC has the story, or what there is of it.
Glenn, and I should roll up a newspaper and smack on the nose any of you who don’t know this, was the first American to orbit the Earth.
Tip o’ the space helmet to NASAWatch.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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August 5th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Is this proof that driving is more dangerous than flying a spaceship?
Not sure you can tip a space helmet- not in space anyway.
August 5th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Oh yes, smack me with that newspaper, You Bad Bad Astronomer….
August 6th, 2006 at 12:52 am
I was glad to hear that Glenn was OK after this fender-bender, but this did remind me of the second-most embarrassing moment of my journalistic career; the day one of our copy editors teased a story on Glenn’s shuttle flight with this gem:
“First man to walk on moon returns to space.”
Ouch.
Don’t even ask about the most embarrassing moment because it was mine and mine alone, and it had nothing to do with astronomy.
And yes, that copy editor is long gone.
August 6th, 2006 at 5:46 am
“Is this proof that driving is more dangerous than flying a spaceship?”
Well, if we’re going to judge by John Glenn’s experience, either driving or taking a shower is more dangerous than space flight. He slipped and got a concussion while doing the latter, forcing him to back out of his first race for a Senate seat.
August 6th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Now this is an interesting opportunity.
It’s understood that Glenn is the first American to orbit with Earth. But then, what do we mean by “orbit”? Any body on a ballistic trajectory is following an orbital path. If I shove off the floor, I enter into an elliptical orbit about the Earth/me barycenter. The only thing that makes my time on orbit so short is that Earth & I intersect and interfere with each other. My orbital elements don’t swing clear of Earth’s surface. What everyone means, though tacitly, is that Glenn was the first to travel an ellipse which didn’t intersect the ground.
So the first American to go into Earth orbit may have been some enthusiastic colonial who jumped for joy upon hearing that King George had sued for peace.
August 6th, 2006 at 8:01 am
I’m left wondering what the driver who hit Glenn’s car thought: “Wow! I just crashed into John Glenn!” I mean, really, what are the odds?
August 6th, 2006 at 8:10 am
And there’s the guy who crashed into President Ford’s limousine as he was being motorcaded. (The Secret Service had neglected to block off an alley along the route.) You can imagine what that driver thought of his 15 minutes of fame.
August 6th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Whoops. And it was his fault too….
Well, glad they’re OK!
August 6th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Glad he & everyone else was ok. A case of more ‘Good health’ than ‘God speed’ in this case!
August 6th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Driving is dangerous for astronauts too. Pete Conrad died not too long ago in a motorcycle accident.
August 6th, 2006 at 10:49 am
I’m glad he and his wife are okay. That would be an awful way for someone who performed such a feat to go.
August 6th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
from WorldNetDaily
NASA loses original tapes
of Apollo 11 moon landing
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51404
Considering the source, I am more than a bit dubious. Has anyone here heard more info on this?
August 6th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
John Glenn’s accident reminded me of Neil Armstrong’s accident (paste follows):
Kathy Sawyer
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, July 11, 1999; Page 10
It was an autumn day in 1979, and Neil Armstrong had been back on planet Earth for almost 10 years. A middle-aged man with a bit of a paunch, thinning hair and a need for spectacles, he was at work on his farm near Lebanon, Ohio, a terrestrial dream of rolling pasture with a brook running through it and cows grazing under big skies. As he jumped off the back of his grain truck, he caught his wedding ring on a latch, shredded his finger and tore off the tip.
”Instead of screaming and running for a doctor, he scooted around until he found his finger,” a friend recalls. He put it on ice, then ”got in his car and drove” to a nearby hospital.
Eventually, microsurgery specialists at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., managed to stitch two arteries and five veins, restore blood circulation and feeling. But the finger was a bit redder than the rest of his hand, and, for a time, he massaged it as the doctor advised, a practice some mistook for a nervous tic. He tried to convince reporters the injury was not news.(end of paste)
So, there you go—we are all human beings subject to the same laws of physics and chance.
August 6th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Dang. Glad to hear everyone involved is ok. Car accidents are bad things to be in.
August 6th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Can you image explaining this situation to GEICO.
“Yes, Glenn… the astronaut, uh crashed into my car…. Yes sir… crashed into my car… No, no.. he wasn’t… he was driving a car!…. Oh,,,, so you are telling me thats not covered on my policy??? Hmm…. oh.. I see, so that is where I saved my 15%… Right…. Oh, really! I can add it now, just in case the same event happens again! Hmm… I’ll pass!”
August 6th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Owlbear1: It appears to be true. NPR reported on it also last week. Here’s a link to a detailed PDF report on the missing tapes: http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/tapes/Search_for_SSTV_Tapes.pdf
August 7th, 2006 at 12:01 am
I’m just thinking back to that time some guy punched John Glenn in the jaw yelling “The earthquakes, the earthquakes”, Glenn grabbed the guy and said get him!
I’m glad everyone is ok.
August 7th, 2006 at 4:18 am
Regarding the Apollo 11 master tapes, yes, it’s been made well known for several weeks. It’s legitimate.
August 7th, 2006 at 4:27 am
Good to hear he and his wife are okay, especially considering their ages.
Tough man, that John Glenn.
August 7th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Do you do maintenance or something on your site over Sunday? For two weeks in a row when I’ve gone online to check it on Sunday, I get part way down the comments and everything comes to an end mid-sentence. I am totally non-technological being 75 years old and living in Alaska but I love your site and love trying to figure out the technical language. Keep up the good work. Science has got to win!
August 7th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I thought I remembered that John Glenn is also the oldest astronaut
http://spaceinfo.jaxa.jp/note/yujin/e/yuj9806_glenn_e.html
I’m glad the traffic accident was not worse than it is.
August 7th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Your father also had a cracked sternum from a minor accident. As accidents go, yes, it was minor……but a cracked sternum is no small thing. It is very painful to breathe, to move, to laugh, etc. It is uncomfortable at any age. but for a man in his 70s or 80s….! Give him extra credit for walking out of the hospital so erect.
Grand Lunar…and what a tough lady his wife must be, as well.
BA Mom