NASA left concerned after astronaut described sight he’d ‘never seen before’ during space trip
John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on 20 February 1962
Seeing Earth from space is a privilege that most of us will never get in our lifetime.
As we all know, the first lucky people to set foot on the moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, and since then, over 290 people have visited NASA's International Space Station.
But, well before the moon landing, back in 1962, an astronaut called John Glenn got to fly up to space in a rocket, where he saw something that 'he'd never seen anything like' before in his life.
Glenn, who diedin 2016 at the age of 95, was one of NASA’s original seven Mercury astronauts, and his flight on Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, showed the world that America was a serious contender in the space race with the Soviet Union.
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His mission was simply to orbit the Earth several times before returning safely; becoming the first American to do so, however, as we say, he saw something that was completely unprecedented.
During his first orbit, he reported back to NASA that he could see unusual firefly-like glowing objects outside of his window.
As reported by IFL Science, Glenn said: "This is Friendship 7. I'll try to describe what I'm in here. I am in a big mass of some very small particles that are brilliantly lit up like they're luminescent. I never saw anything like it. They round a little; they're coming by the capsule, and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by."
He added, "They swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window, and they're all brilliantly lighted. They probably average maybe 7 or 8 feet apart, but I can see them all down below me, also."
NASA was concerned that they might impact the spacecraft; however, Glenn confirmed that he couldn't hear any impact against the capsule.
He added, "They're very slow; they're not going away from me more than maybe 3 or 4 miles per hour. They're going at the same speed I am, approximately. They're only very slightly under my speed.
"They do have a different motion, though, from me, because they swirl around the capsule and then depart back the way I am looking. There are literally thousands of them."
The astronaut explained that the particles appeared just after sunset as he orbited the planet; however, as the sun rose again shortly afterwards, the mysterious objects disappeared.
Glenn said, "This is Friendship 7, broadcasting in the blind. Ah, sunrise has come up behind in the periscope. It was brilliant in the scope, a brilliant red as it approached the horizon and came up; and just as the, as I looked back up out the window, I had literally thousands of small, luminous particles swirling around the capsule and going away from me at maybe 3 to 5 miles per hour.
"Now that I am out in the bright sun, they seem to have disappeared. It was just as the sun was coming up. I can still see just a few of them now, even though the sun is up some 20° above the horizon."
While concerning at first, the 'fireflies' were later explained by NASA to be tiny ice particles traveling alongside the spacecraft, which were illuminated by the sun at certain angles.
They were more widely understood after someone else orbited the Earth later that year and saw exactly the same phenomenon.
Being the first person ever see something is a pretty cool concept, though, and a great story to tell - especially if the mysterious objects in question looked like a magical swarm of fireflies.
Madison Burgess