{"id":54662,"date":"2024-01-28T23:33:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=54662"},"modified":"2026-01-28T01:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:06:49","slug":"the-mystery-of-the-space-fireflies-that-john-glenn-saw-from-his-spacecraft-in-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/01\/28\/the-mystery-of-the-space-fireflies-that-john-glenn-saw-from-his-spacecraft-in-1962\/","title":{"rendered":"The mystery of the space 'fireflies' that John Glenn saw from his spacecraft in 1962"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was watching one of my favorite movies, \"The Right Stuff\" (1983), which chronicles the beginning of the American space race.<\/p>\n

The mysterious 33-year journey through space of a part of the Apollo 12 mission rocket<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe furthest car park: the three wheeled vehicles that were abandoned on the Moon<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

This film has unforgettable moments, but perhaps one of the best comes during the part that tells of the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) mission, with the Friendship 7 spacecraft, manned by John Glenn<\/strong>, which On this mission he became the first member of the US Marine Corps to travel to space<\/strong> and the first American astronaut to make an orbital flight, specifically three orbits, on February 20, 1962. The flight lasted 4 hours and 55 minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Still from the film \"The Right Stuff\" in which Australian aborigines appear making a bonfire.<\/div>\n

That part of the film is very magical.<\/strong> There are beautiful images of Australian aborigines lighting a bonfire, with the hypnotic sound of a didyeridoo, near the Muchea Tracking Station, in southwestern Australia, 60 km north of Perth. The incandescent ashes of the bonfire rise until they mix with the stars in the sky<\/strong>, and then the scene that motivates this article appears.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The image from the film in which Glenn sees what he describes as \"fireflies\".<\/div>\n

That scene in the movie describes well something that really happened.<\/strong> John Glenn (Ed Harris played the astronaut in the movie) reported seeing something outside the ship, which he described as \" fireflies\". This is the Spanish translation of the radio conversation published by universetoday.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

John Glenn<\/strong>
\nThis is Friendship Seven. I\u2019ll try to describe what I\u2019m in here. I am in a big mass of some very small particles, that are brilliantly lit up like they\u2019re luminescent. I never saw anything like it.<\/strong> They round a little; they\u2019re coming by the capsule, and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Glenn<\/strong>
\nThey swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window and they\u2019re all brilliantly lighted.<\/strong> They probably average maybe 7 or 8 feet apart, but I can see them all down below me, also.<\/p>\n

CAPCOM<\/strong>
\nRoger, Friendship Seven. Can you hear any impact with the capsule? Over.<\/p>\n

John Glenn<\/strong>
\nNegative, negative. They\u2019re very slow; they\u2019re not going away from me more than maybe 3 or 4 miles per hour. They\u2019re going at the same speed I am approximately.<\/strong> They\u2019re only very slightly under my speed. Over.<\/p>\n

John Glenn<\/strong>
\nThey do, they do have a different motion, though, from me because they swirl around the capsule and then depart back the way I am looking.<\/p>\n

John Glenn<\/strong>
\nAre you receiving? Over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first time Glenn saw these fireflies he had flown over Australia, during the first orbit. Glenn saw them again when he was flying over the Canary Islands<\/strong>, during the second orbit, but then he verified that those small lights were not coming from the ship's engines.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A still from the film showing the supposed \"fireflies\" seen from the outside of the Friendship 7 spacecraft.<\/div>\n

The aforementioned film surrounds this vision with a very magical air<\/strong>, which leaves the viewer in doubt about the true nature of the lights that Glenn saw. The mystery of space \"fireflies\" continues to stimulate the imagination of many people<\/strong>, and even inspired this theme song from Cosmic Space Traveler<\/a>, titled \"Friendship 7 Fireflies\":<\/p>\n