John Glenn

Discovery: A Grande Dame’s Final Curtain Call

Posted on 04/17/2012 by | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentIt was visible for just five seconds or so, gliding between the buildings on L Street here in Washington, D.C., but I still managed to raise my camera and snap one last shot of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it headed toward its final home at Dulles International Airport this morning. It wasn’t even 10 a.m., the time the news had said Discovery would begin making the rounds atop its specially outfitted Boeing 747. I was glad for that glimpse, …

50 Years after John Glenn’s Flight, These Movies are Still as Close as We’ll Get to Space!

Posted on 02/19/2012 by | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentWhere were you? Fifty years ago this week, my whole kindergarten class gathered in Mrs. Kipp’s room to hear the news reports as John Glenn became the first American to soar into orbit (no classroom TVs in those days—a transistor radio did the job). We all sat there amazed, dreaming of the not-far-off day when we, too, would float weightless in space. And by the time Neil Armstrong walked on the moon not 10 years later, we knew there’s be …