influenced by space pioneers like john glenn who, when he took that flight on the friendship 7, really he didn't know whether or not he was going to come brack safely or not. it was on shear grit and courage in terms of making sure he was going to be prepared for that flight. he was very low key about it, but very determined to serve his country in this way. could you talk more about that, tom. >> john glenn went into his mercury career with his eyes wide open. he and the other astronauts experienced launch failures in cape canaveral. they saw atlas rockets that were going to carry them into space blow up before their eyes. by the time john stepped on board the friendship 7 craft, the failure rate for the atlas was about 40%. only six out of ten rockets were flying successfully. these astronauts were going to get into a rocket with that track record and put the u.s. back in the space race. he went into his flight with his