NASA Glenn To Host Tweetup Celebrating 50th Anniversary Of First American To Orbit Earth

Launch of Friendship 7, the first American manned orbital space flight. Astronaut John Glenn aboard, the Mercury-Atlas rocket is launched from Pad 14.  Photo Credit: NASA
Launch of Friendship 7, the first American manned orbital space flight. Astronaut John Glenn aboard, the Mercury-Atlas rocket is launched from Pad 14. Photo Credit: NASA

CLEVELAND — NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland will host a special event on March 2 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s first orbital flight by an American. NASA also will invite 100 people for a behind-the-scenes Tweetup at GRC in advance of the celebration event.

The Tweetup activities begin at 7:30 a.m. EST with a tour of Glenn’s world-class flight research and ground test facilities that support
aeronautics and space exploration. Participants will speak with scientists and engineers about technologies being investigated and
developed.

Following the tours, the Tweetup will move to downtown Cleveland for the Glenn tribute event. “Celebrating John Glenn’s Legacy: 50 years of Americans in Orbit,” will be held at 1 p.m. at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. The program will include a video
tribute and remarks by Glenn and agency and political officials. Tweetup participants also will meet astronaut Greg “Box” Johnson and
other special guests.

A camera aboard the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft photographs Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during the Mercury-Atlas 6 spaceflight (00302-3); Photographs Glenn as he uses a photometer to view the sun during sunsent on the MA-6 space flight (00304).  Photo Credit: NASA
A camera aboard the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft photographs Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during the Mercury-Atlas 6 spaceflight (00302-3); Photographs Glenn as he uses a photometer to view the sun during sunsent on the MA-6 space flight (00304). Photo Credit: NASA

On March 1, 1999, the Lewis Research Center was officially renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in recognition of Glenn’s contributions to science, space and the State of Ohio. As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Glenn trained in 1960 at Lewis in the Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility.

Today, the center’s research and technology development work focuses on air-breathing propulsion; communications; in-space propulsion and cryogenic fluids management; power, energy storage and conversion; materials and structures for extreme environments; and physical sciences and biomedical technologies in space.

Tweetup registration opens at noon on Friday, Feb. 3, and closes at noon on Monday, Feb. 6. NASA will select 100 total participants,
including Twitter followers and their guests, by lottery from those who register online. Because Glenn is a government facility with
restricted access, the event is open only to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

For more NASA Tweetup information and to sign up, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

To follow Johnson on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Box

For more information about John Glenn, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/john_glenn.html

For more information about NASA’s Glenn Research Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/glenn

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