Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Banquet, Olympic Hotel, May 10, 1962 [Menu & Program]; Astronaut John H. Glenn orbits the Earth for America, February 20, 1962;

Item Details

Seattle, WA, [Washington, DC & New York, NY:, [National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Allied Printing; U.S. Government Printing Office; C.S. Hammond & Co.,, 1962., N/A

First Editions, VG/VG/NF

Three pieces. 1st - 8vo. 5.5 x 7.25 in. [4 pp (unpaginated).], printed on laid paper in red & blue, ragged fore-edge to first leaf as issued (slight age toning to center panel leaving faint matte mark at fore-edges), still a VG copy, boldly signed by Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. on front cover; 2nd - Oblong 4to. 8 pp. Numerous photos, diagrams, 1 double-page panoramic photo of Atlas rocket firing. Illustrated softcovers, stapled as issued (slight bumping to 1 corner), still VG; 3rd - 1 large pictorial map/poster sized 37.5 x 25.25 in., colour lithograph, fold creases as issued (slight age toning), NF copy.

This small group of three space travel items were collected as souvenirs at the 1962 Century 21 Exposition Seattle World’s Fair, highlighted by a signed menu & program from the banquet held following the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space held at the Opera House at May 10. The banquet featured the keynote address by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and celebrated appearance by Astronaut John Herschell Glenn, Jr. (1921-2016) who less than 3 months before had completed the Project Mercury human space flight around the Earth. He piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States after launching from Kennedy Space Center. He completed three-orbits with a maximum altitude of 162 statute miles, orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour, and landed near Grand Turk Island where he was transferred onto the USS Randolph from the capsule. This space flight featured prominently in the 2016 non-fiction book Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly, and adapted-fictionalized film, documenting the role of African-American women mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race.

Glenn was a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, engineer, third American in Space, the first to orbit the Earth, and flew with both the Mercury Program, as well as later with the Oct. 29, 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95. Glenn would also serve as a 4-term US Senator, and ran for President in 1984, defeated by Walter Mondale. The Friendship 7 space capsule received the most prominent placement at the NASA Space Exhibit in the Pacific Science Center during the Century 21 Expo, and featured a John Glenn visit prior to the conference, and banquet later. The dinner that night featured Prawns New Orleans, Bone Breast of Capon, Asparagus, Rice Pilaf, and Strawberry Coupe Roma, with introduction of the speakers by Senator Warren G. Magnuson, and such guests as Governor Rosellini, Senator Henry Jackson, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and others. The poster/pictorial map included here features insets for Project Mercury, and the proposed Projects Gemini, and the Apollo lunar missions, featuring the Mercury 7 astronauts along the bottom border, including Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Jr., Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper, & Slayton. No copies of the menu & program are located in Worldcat, or other institutional holdings; 1 later version of the C.S. Hammond poster/pictorial map located at MSU & Southern UT Univ.