He saw Perth as the ‘City of Lights’ – RIP John Glenn, Legendary Astronaut

He saw Perth as the ‘City of Lights’ – RIP John Glenn, Legendary Astronaut

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John Glenn, the pioneering space explorer who saw Perth as the ‘City of Lights’ on February 20, 1962, has died aged 95.

The Astronaut, in orbit over Perth on that night in 1962, looked down over the city and south to Rockingham and proclaimed the Western Australian capital as “a city of lights” in a famous moment for Perth.

“It just seems like it was yesterday to me. I remember that view very vividly,” he said in 2012 on the 50th anniversary of his orbit.

John Glenn

“I know the people of Perth have great memories of those days, as do I.”

Perth from Space - as John Glenn did in 1962
Perth from Space – as John Glenn did in 1962

Again, in 1998, when Glenn returned to space at the age of 77, he looked down on Perth to proclaim ‘The City of Lights’ below. With the city turning on as many lights as possible to mark the occasion.

“To those of you that participated in that great time back in 1962 and 1998, thank you very much and we have great memories of Perth,” he said.

“This time (1998) I could see the ground again, and it looked to me as though the lights of Perth and Rockingham were even more vivid than they had been back 36 years before in 1962, so it was a great view and once again we were happy to be able to say hello to the people of Perth on that dark side of the earth as I was going around,” he said.

Perth resident John Glenn and his son Terry in 1962 prepare a backyard sheet and lights to welcome Astronaut John Glenn
Perth resident John Glenn and his son Terry in 1962 prepare a backyard sheet and lights to welcome Astronaut John Glenn (The West Australian)

How Perth become, “a city of lights” – from The West Australian in 2012.

Bill King, a journalist at The West Australian, was looking for a new angle. After a pre-flight press conference, he asked Gordon Cooper, a US astronaut based at Muchea tracking station, if Lt-Col Glenn would see the lights if people left them on.

Colonel Cooper didn’t know.

King took the idea to Perth Lord Mayor Sir Henry “Harry” Howard, who branded it a waste of public money.

But Premier David Brand approved and left street lights on until dawn and the people of Perth responded with enthusiasm, leaving on porch lights and hanging Hills hoists with gas burners and globes and draping white sheets to amplify the light.

At 11.37pm, Friendship 7 passed over at more than 28,000km/h – more than 6.4km for every beat of Lt-Col Glenn’s heart.

At Muchea, Colonel Cooper suggested the astronaut look for the light show in his honour.

“That’s affirmative,” Lt-Col Glenn radioed back. “Just to my right I can see a big pattern of lights, apparently right on the coast. I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it.”

Colonel Cooper: “Perth and Rockingham you’re seeing there.”

Glenn: “The lights show up very well and thank everybody for turning them on will you.”

John Glenn was the first American into space, ten months after Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin did so as the first human in space.

He was an American aviator and war time pilot, before becoming an Astronaut and onto a career in politics as a US Senator for Ohio.

The John Glenn mission was a significant milestone for Western Australia, the WA Museum said.

Australia as the nation took a major role in this and subsequent NASA missions providing the only non-US based Command station (Muchea in Western Australia for the Mercury missions), right through to the well known role that Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek played in bringing the television footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing to the world.

God speed John Glenn.