RENDEZVOUS IN SPACE

America's success in putting Man into orbit around the earth now occupies this knowledgeable, profile writer on aviation matters. Caidin tells the story of John Glenn Jr., and how the Marine Corps astronaut circled the globe for nearly five hours last February at a speed of 17,545 miles per hour. He tells us briefly the history of Project Mercury, of the disappointments and delays at Cape Canaveral as scientists prepared the giant Atlas rockets to hurl Glenn high into space. The journey itself is described, some of it in Glenn's own words, while the anxious, watchful ground crews and scientist teams below worried about the possibility of the astronaut being on the way back to earth. Included too are brief accounts of Gagarin's and Tiloy's earlier flights for the Soviet Union, as well as Grissom's suborbital flight last year. Quoting one scientist as deeming the present stage of rocketry and orbiting like ""ignorant savages at the edge of a stormy beach"", Caidin gives us future glimpses of m flights and interspace transportation. Written at his usual competent, informing level.