Cronkite to cover Glenn again

Monday, October 26, 1998

BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Covering John Glenn's space shot in 1962 or the other Mercury missions wasn't exactly a blast for Walter Cronkite.

The legendary CBS newsman, who co-anchors CNN's coverage of Mr. Glenn's return to space Thursday, recalled broadcasting at Cape Canaveral "from the back of a station wagon, being chewed up by mosquitoes on top, and watching out for rattlesnakes below."

Things will be different this time for the two pioneers:

Mr. Glenn, 77, a U.S. senator, will be riding in the shuttle Discovery, instead of the cozy Mercury Friendship 7 capsule about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Mr. Cronkite, 81, will be speaking from an air-cooled platform attached to a complex of air-conditioned trailers.

And after 49 years on CBS, "the most trusted man in America" will be working for the all-news cable channel, which has televised all 90-plus shuttle launches.

TV SPECIALS
It's T-minus four days, and counting all the John Glenn and space shuttle specials before Thursday's blast-off:
  • Godspeed, John Glenn (8 p.m. today, Discovery Channel): Walter Cronkite narrates a one-hour biography of the astronaut-politician.
  • The Astronaut (9 p.m. today, Discovery): A report on Andy Thomas' preparation for his 1998 mission aboard the Russian Space Station Mir.
  • Inside the Space Shuttle (10 p.m. today, Discovery): Actor Gary Sinese (Apollo 13) narrates a video tour of the spacecraft.
  • Biography (8 p.m. Tuesday, A&E): "John Glenn: The All-American Hero" includes comments from former astronaut Scott Carpenter and Mr. Glenn.
  • CNN Perspective (10 p.m. Tuesday, CNN): CNN devotes the hour to "The John Glenn Story: A Return to Space."
  • John Glenn, American Hero (8 p.m. Wednesday, Channels 48, 54, 16): PBS' comprehensive biography was compiled by Blaine Baggett, a producer of PBS' Spaceflight and The Astronomers and one of the "journalist in space" program finalists.
    • "This was obviously the place to be, and I'm delighted to do it," said Mr. Cronkite, who covered the first shuttle launch in 1981 for CBS, a month after handing over the CBS Evening News to Dan Rather. Mr. Cronkite, still on CBS' payroll, had to obtain special permission to co-anchor (with Miles O'Brien) CNN's coverage of the Ohio senator, whom he has known for almost 40 years. He also narrated Godspeed, John Glenn, a Discovery Channel documentary airing at 8 p.m. today. great adventure

    For decades, Mr. Cronkite was America's authoritative voice of space exploration, starting with 1950s "military rocketry" launches long before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in 1958.

    "We spent many a cold nights looking at the bright lights of a gantry miles away, waiting for a rocket to launch," he said. "We watched some of them blow up. We watched some of them fly."

    When manned space flights began in 1961, "we didn't know what would happen. We didn't really know, first of all, if (the astronaut) could survive the flight -- and if he did, what shape he'd be in. This was all mysterious to us. It was all a great adventure."

    Mr. Cronkite made it easy for a nation to understand the complex new technology. But it wasn't easy for him.

    This WAS rocket science.

    "I'm the guy who flunked first-year physics at the University of Texas," he said.

    So he did his homework. He absorbed scientific details by rewriting research materials and handbooks into his own words. He has hit the books again this year "to get up to speed on the shuttle program."

    Passion for space

    In a recent interview, it was clear that Mr. Cronkite hasn't lost that deep passion for the space program that qualified him for NASA's "journalist in space" in the 1980s. (The program was canceled after the 1986 Challenger explosion killed seven Americans, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe.)

    "I was very, very, very enthusiastic about man going into space, and I still am. It's one of the last great frontiers, other than the ocean. It's one of our last great adventures," he says.

    [discovery logo]
    Special coverage
    He hopes the attention to Sen. Glenn's mission will rekindle the nation's love affair with space, too.

    "We were so successful in space, we don't pay any attention to it any more," he said. "I think there's a whole generation out there, the under 29ers, who hardly know we've been in space. (Shuttle missions) are so scarcely covered any more."

    But Mr. Cronkite bristled at the suggestion that he's a cheerleader for NASA, or that Mr. Glenn's mission is a publicity stunt.

    "I'm very much in love with the space program, not I'm not in love with NASA," he says.

    Aging experiments conducted in space on the four-term Ohio senator were "a legitimate area of interest" that will produce valuable data used "in future space flights in the colonization of space, which is going to come," he said.

    "It's an important step."

    And the veteran newsman wishes he was taking it.

    "I told Glenn on the phone that I'm older than he is, and if they want to test old age in space, I should be the one to go," he joked. But Mr. Cronkite knows he can't match Mr. Glenn's fine physical condition. He couldn't keep up with the senator during a Capitol Hill visit earlier this year.

    "He's a remarkable man in every sense -- his concentration, his devotion to a job at hand. He's as vigorous as ever," Mr. Cronkite said.

    Of all the stories Mr. Cronkite has covered -- World War II, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam and the civil rights movement -- the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission remains his favorite.

    "The greatest story of them all was man landing on the moon," he said. "That's the story that's going to live for 500 years. Or 1,000 years."

    And that's the way it is.

    John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV - radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.

    John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.