BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Glenn's return to space this fall may just be the thing to get Americans excited about the space program again, observers predict.
Mr. Glenn, who will turn 77 July 18, is scheduled to ride aboard the space shuttle Discovery when it blasts off for a nine-day flight Oct. 29.
It will be his first time into space since the Feb. 20, 1962, flight that made him the first American to orbit the Earth and a Cold War hero to the nation, as well.
His planned return has already shattered the ho-hum attitude that has surrounded shuttle flights in recent years.
Some NASA officials are likening the atmosphere -- and media interest -- to the glory days in the Apollo moon program.
"From all over the world we are seeing (media) interest. To see that level of interest you would have to go back to the Apollo program," said Doug Ward, agency spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
All but the Wheaties box
As he spoke, Mr. Ward was putting out the welcome mat for four national magazines, various television news networks and international press that will descend on the space center just within the next week to do stories about Mr. Glenn's continuing training.
Mr. Glenn, who will retire from the Senate at the end of the year, is using congressional recesses to get in his shuttle training and will be in Houston through Wednesday.
NASA announced in January it would send Mr. Glenn aboard the shuttle to study the relationship between the physical effects of space flight and the aging process on Earth. Scientists have long noted similarities.
Agency officials have consistently denied the vision of a public relations bonanza had anything to do with giving Mr. Glenn permission to fly.
But intended or not, a publicity bonanza is exactly what they are getting.
"It's drawing more attention to NASA's human flight program than anything in recent years. The widespread media attention being given to it is a manifestation of it," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. The national media have already descended upon NASA facilities in Texas several times this year to do stories about Mr. Glenn in training.
Mr. Glenn's name has even been suggested for the Wheaties box. Among those feeling the growing spotlight the most are residents of the Cape Canaveral area in Florida.
"We have much earlier bookings than for any other one," said William Van Engelenburg, chairman of the Titusville, Fla., Area Visitors Council.
Apartments and a few motel and hotel rooms held back for VIPs are about the only left for the launch, he said.
"Many in Florida can identify with him -- a senior going into space," Mr. Van Engelenburg said in reference to the state's considerable retiree populations.
"It should be a very exciting launch day."
He said he has already seen at least double the number of news media bookings for a shuttle flight.
Publications aimed at the elderly and medical researchers, he said, are among those that have been securing rooms.
More mainstream media are also planning out-of-the-ordinary coverage of the launch.
"Are we going to cover this more than a normal old mundane shuttle flight? You bet. There is more human interest there," said Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times.
"As a human interest story, the idea of a man that old wanting to go back into space and doing it is irresistible."
Arnot Walker, spokesman for ABC News, similarly said there is no denying the importance of the story.
"There is a great deal of interest in the story -- one, the senator's age, the fact that he is a senator (and) the fact that he is a former astronaut," Mr. Walker said.
But Ray Arvidson, an expert on space policy at Washington University in St. Louis, said he cannot yet rank the media splash surrounding the Glenn story with the excitement caused by the mission of the robot Pathfinder, which landed on Mars in 1997 and provided spectacular pictures.
Still, he said, the Glenn mission is a "demonstration that anybody can get into space."
In that sense, he said, it could help make the space program more popular.
Mr. Logsdon, the George Washington professor, said there is little doubt about that.
"It's going to have benefits for NASA, clearly," he said. "It will help mainly with focusing the attention of the American public (on) things being done in space that have relevance to concerns on earth."
Ante up?
But Mr. McManus said many Americans may look upon the flight as an interesting spectacle only and not something they want to ante up more tax dollars for.
"If NASA is hoping this is going to create a groundswell of support for a bigger space program, they may be disappointed," he said.
