That was the first ever live splashdown I've seen of a space craft.

[Tommy Carcetti]

I’ve watched short clips of the old Apollo splashdowns. And the shuttle landed like a plane.

Rather impressive.

All I have to say is we needed that safe return.

Let’s savor it. Perhaps the one and only feel good news story we’ll get all year.

Unless…well, you know what I’m thinking, right?

[surfered]

1. It's been a long time.

[2naSalit]

2. I think...

I've seen every one that was televised so far. I remember my brother and I trying to stay up for the length of John Glenn's flight. We were into it.

[Tommy Carcetti]

3. I remember watching The Right Stuff wishing I had been around for Glenn's flight

I did actually see him return to space in 1999, live and in person. It felt like a small taste of what it must have been like back in 1962.

[2naSalit]

5. Back then...

We could only listen on the radio, looked at pictures in the newspapers.

It was a major breakthrough when we were able to actually watch on the teevee machine!

[LeftInTX]

15. I was in Japan and my mom said John Glenn was orbitting the earth.

I ran outside to see his space ship. Of course, he had probably landed already by then. It was early in the morning in Tokyo. I was in 1st grade.

[gerryatwork]

11. I remember

recording the entirety of John Glen’s flight directly off the radio on an reel to reel recorder.Those reels are long gone

[SCantiGOP]

14. Glenn thought he wasn't going to survive

During re-entry he began to see what he thought were flaming chunks of the heat shield going past his window. It turned out that it was some straps that had not detached, but he said he was waiting to feel the heat as the nose of the craft began to
melt.
That just added to the huge grin he had upon exiting.
And some of the younger folks may not know that he was an excellent six-term liberal Democratic Senator from Ohio. He was a pallbearer for RFK in 68, and later made a run for President.

[Tommy Carcetti]

16. Yeah, they kept the retro rocket package on...

…because they were worried the heat shield was loose.

That’s why he only orbited 3 times. He was scheduled to orbit 7.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. I remember the prior splashdowns

My kids just reminded me that I am old

Link to tweet

[llmart]

6. I am in awe of how many people it takes to make something like this happen.

The Navy dive teams must be the best of the best. What a serious job they have too.

[calimary]

7. We relished every moment of it!

I LOVED these events during the U.S. space flight heyday. Hung on every minute of the coverage of every shot.

Just LOVED it! It’s our gateway to humans living in space! Working shifts on orbiting space stations, traveling farther on rockets (next goal for humans: Mars?), colonizing areas not of OUR world…

I hope I live long enough to see at least the beginnings of it.

But, hell, if my body dies before that gets going, maybe my spirit can tag along! (And it’s bound not to take up much room, supplies, OR oxygen onboard!)

[AllyCat]

8. So fabulous to watch this! I cheered when Wiseman responded after they got through the atmosphere.

So happy for everyone involved. What a great job by an international group of scientists and other wizards who made this so successful!

We really needed this.

[FoxNewsSucks]

9. I watched nearly all the Apollo missions

It was a national pride thing. We ate space-food sticks, drank Tang, and watched every mission.

Haven't seen anything so much like it until this mission.

[Javaman]

10. So wonderful.🙂

Been a long time, since the Gemini/Apollo days.

I was lucky because my neighbor worked for Grumman at the time and they were building the Luna lander. I was friends with his son. My friend had all these really amazing photos from NASA

After Apollo 11 returned, my older brother got a chance to goto to the ticket tape parade for the astronauts. I was so jealous that I couldn’t go.

While we are living through truly insane times, this is such a bright spot for me. It brings back so many memories 🙂

[hamsterjill]

12. The name.

Jules Bergman.

If you know, you know! It was an exciting era, and although this feat today is amazing, doing it back then - indeed doing MORE because Americans LANDED on the moon - without AI and the computers we have nowadays makes the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs all the more stupendous.

America was so proud of the space program and the astronauts were heroes. Unfortunately, all of the people behind the scenes didn't get much recognition.

I remember that when Apollo 13 was coming back, we skipped school to watch the splashdown and we were all holding our breath.

[Gore1FL]

13. In 1975, they swore to me that I had just watched the last landing of this nature.

The reusable Space Shuttle was the next thing!