As Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) ventured into space last month aboard the shuttle Discovery, a funny vision occurred to me. I pictured Yogi sitting in front of a television set at his New Jersey home and uttering one of his most storied lines: "This is like déja vu all over again."

Glenn, as everyone knows, was anointed an instant hero on Feb. 20, 1962, when he became the first American to orbit Earth. Last month, at age 77, Glenn was hailed a hero once again when he returned from his journey on the Discovery. He now holds the distinction of being the oldest person ever to fly in space. A hero of the Cold War, Glenn has now become a role model for a generation of aging Americans and an inspiration to all. Technology has played a supporting role in helping Glenn become a hero. But engineers have always played a starring role in all space missions, from Glenn's first to his last.

The label of "hero" is hard to earn, but Glenn deserves the distinction. Another hallmark that isn't thrown around too readily these days is "role model." In fact, athletes of another age, like Yogi, used to relish that stamp. Today, most shun it.

That's one reason why it's significant for us to recognize the accomplishments of those who often work quietly behind the scenes to make those in front look good. The engineers who worked just as hard as John Glenn did to make the recent space shuttle mission successful are role models to would-be engineers and to all those who work without fanfare on projects that don't receive the publicity of a John Glenn space shuttle flight.

Aboard Discovery, it's only natural that the oldest guinea pig, Glenn, would overshadow the six other crew members—including 43-year-old engineer Stephen Robinson. NASA is rightfully hoping that the publicity Glenn's flight has garnered will rekindle interest in a space program many Americans have taken for granted.

... And Again

On an unrelated note, this magazine's web site has not been taken for granted. In fact, for those of us at Mechanical Engineering magazine, Yogi Berra's statement on déja vu rings true for another reason.

For the second year in a row, our web site, Mechanical Engineering Magazine Online (www.memagazine.org), was recognized with a prestigious Ozzie Award in the category Best Nonprint Magazine. This year, we were recognized as a finalist. Last year, we received the Gold Medal.

We are particularly pleased by this recognition of our web site because the category was open to entries that included the web sites of commercial, trade, and consumer publications.

Working hard to be the best you can be is reward enough in any endeavor. But when comparably small achievements like our web site, or significant ones like John Glenn's return to space, are recognized for special merit, the reward becomes even more special.

Yogi used to say, "You can observe a lot just by watchin'." We hope you'll check our site and keep on watchin'.

Email your comments or questions to: falcionij@asme.org

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