Read the Letter Written by John Glenn to Honor Jeff Bezos for Blue Origin
by Brian Wolly/ Innovation/ Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Awards/ SmithsonianMag.com
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Two weeks before he died, the legendary astronaut wrote a letter in recognition of the 2016 American Ingenuity Awards.
This evening, as a part of the
2016 Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Awards, astronaut Mae Jemison read a letter written by her fellow space traveler Senator John Glenn, who died earlier today at 95 years old. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth when he flew on
Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. “He was a great American hero, there’s no doubt about it,”
said curator Michael Neufeld of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. “He wanted a bold new space program to continue, to go outwards to Mars and the moon.”
The letter, reprinted below, congratulates Jeff Bezos on receiving
this year's Technology award for the breakthroughs in reusable rocket technology made by his Blue Origin company. Bezos had previously announced that he would be naming the next-generation of his spacecraft "New Glenn," after one of his heroes...."
Richard