NASA Hosts Events to Celebrate 50 Years of Americans in Orbit

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington

Tracy Young

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Andrea Farmer/John Kennedy

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Fla.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In celebration of 50 years of Americans in orbit, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host several events Feb. 17 and 18 that will air live on NASA Television.

On Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. EST, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana will host an employee presentation on NASA TV with the first two Americans to orbit Earth, Mercury astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted his Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first U.S. orbital mission. Three months later, on May 24, Carpenter became the second American in orbit.

At 3 p.m., NASA TV will air a news conference with Glenn and Carpenter. The event will take place at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in the Mercury Mission Control exhibit.

On Feb. 18 at 6:30 p.m., Glenn and Carpenter will participate in a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex honoring all who made NASA's Project Mercury possible. The "On the Shoulders of Giants" program will include remarks from Cabana, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and astronaut Steve Robinson, who flew with Glenn on his second trip into orbit on shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission in 1998.

Media interested in covering the news conference and ceremony should contact Andrea Farmer at 321-449-4318 or John Kennedy at 321-449-4273 for access to the visitor complex.

Highlights from the Feb. 17 and 18 events will air on NASA TV's Video File. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, visit http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com.

For more information about NASA's Project Mercury, visit http://go.usa.gov/QIM.

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