{"id":292681,"date":"2026-02-20T02:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292681\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T02:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:20:09","slug":"today-in-history-february-20-astronaut-surrounded-by-fireflies-when-orbiting-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292681\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History &#8211; February 20: Astronaut surrounded by &#8216;fireflies&#8217; when orbiting the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During his short flight, Glenn was astounded by an unexpected phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/19c815d9-7c85-46b0-99f7-00c75fc41ed3.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth aboard the Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. (AP)<\/p>\n<p>He described his capsule going through a mass of &#8220;fireflies&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am in a big mass of some very small particles, they&#8217;re brilliantly lit up like they&#8217;re luminescent,&#8221; he told ground control.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A whole shower of them coming by. They swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window and they&#8217;re all brilliantly lighted&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his description of them as &#8220;fireflies&#8221;, the dazzling sight was actually more banal.<\/p>\n<p>NASA concluded the &#8220;fireflies&#8221; were merely ice crystals venting from elsewhere on the spacecraft, flying past his window.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/cc2b111b-1ab9-425a-8dda-36f565971f64.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>John Glenn orbited the Earth in a tiny capsule. (Nine Archives)<\/p>\n<p>Because of issues with the capsule&#8217;s heat shield, Glenn had a much warmer re-entry than planned.<\/p>\n<p>But despite fears he would burn up in the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere, he survived in one piece.<\/p>\n<p>In anticipation of a delayed rescue after his ocean splashdown, the Friendship 7 was equipped with a life raft, a desalination kit, survival rations, matches and shark repellent.<\/p>\n<p>But Glenn did not have to wait long for rescue, landing just 10km away from a US Navy destroyer.<\/p>\n<p>They would be alongside the Friendship 7 just 17 minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>Not only had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/world\/russian-cosmonaut-has-a-breakdown-on-his-way-to-the-iss\/36e0b251-9a2b-419a-8a43-8b7c16ec2fc9\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"cosmonaut\">cosmonaut<\/a> Gherman Titov already orbited the Earth seven months earlier, he had done so 17 times over 25 hours.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ef226916-1203-427b-83dd-9cfd7edc9c1f.jpeg\"   alt=\"February 20\"\/>John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth aboard the Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. (AP)<\/p>\n<p>Titov had a much hairier re-entry than Glenn.<\/p>\n<p>Because a module failed to detach, Titov had to eject himself from the capsule as it was hurtling to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Titov parachuted to the ground with a bloody nose after banging his helmet trying to eject.<\/p>\n<p>Glenn would be regarded as a national hero, and would be elected to the US Senate in 1974.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to space on a nine-day mission in 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his short flight, Glenn was astounded by an unexpected phenomenon. John Glenn becomes the first American to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-292681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}