posted 05-12-2016 08:51 PM               

Space Cover 367: Glenn visits Hamburg

In October 1965, John Glenn Jr. toured a series of European cities — Frankfurt, Munich, Bonn, Bremen, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Madrid, and Lisbon. NASA, the Department of State, and the US Information Agency organized Glenn's travel arrangements based on requests from American embassies.

The President's Report to Congress observed that Glenn's tour "gave a real boost to public and official support in Western Europe for the US space effort." US Information Service Naples commented that Glenn was a "continual lesson in diplomacy."

The Italian paper I Giornale d'Italia suggested that Glenn's "human appeal is irresistible, almost contagious... he is an unpretentious man, but a first rate man with an exceptional, almost rare technical background."

American Ambassador Margaret Tibbetts enthusiastically reported that the visit "contributed to a bettering of US image in Norway, particularly indirectly offsetting some of reverses we have had here lately stemming from [the] Viet Nam issue."

On October 5, 1965. Glenn was the guest of the West German astronomical society on a visit to Hamburg’s Bergdorf Observatory, in which the advanced telescope developed by the German astronomer Schmidt was still operational. John Glenn and other astronauts were familiar with the Schmidt telescope as they had used a prototype in their training.

Special pictorial postmarks were created for many astronaut and cosmonaut visits to cities around the world. Pictured is the pictorial cancel for John Glenn’s visit to Hamburg.