Friendship 7

Spacecraft· NASAinactive

Friendship 7 — John Glenn orbited Earth three times in 1962, the first American to circle the planet.

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Key facts

Distance from Sun

1.01 AU

Status

Completed

Launched

1962

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA
Launched: February 20, 1962
Status: Completed

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun: 1.01 AU
Distance from Earth: 398,626 km
Distance from Venus: 0.646 AU

Mission

Friendship 7 made John Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth, restoring some national pride after the Soviet Union had twice put cosmonauts into orbit. On 20 February 1962 Glenn, a decorated Marine pilot, lifted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket — a thinner, riskier booster than the Redstone — to the now-famous send-off, 'Godspeed, John Glenn.' Over the next four hours and fifty-five minutes he circled the planet three times, taking manual control when an automatic thruster failed and marvelling at mysterious glowing 'fireflies', later understood to be ice particles, drifting past his window. The flight's tensest moment came near its end, when a faulty sensor suggested that the capsule's heat shield might have come loose. Uncertain whether the danger was real, controllers had Glenn keep his spent retrorocket pack strapped over the shield during re-entry, hoping it would hold everything in place. He rode out a fiery descent not knowing whether the shield would protect him; it did, and the warning proved false. Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic and Glenn was recovered by the destroyer USS Noa, returning to a hero's welcome and a ticker-tape parade. He went on to a long career in the United States Senate, and then, remarkably, returned to space in 1998 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery at the age of seventy-seven, becoming the oldest person to fly in orbit — bookending one of the most storied lives of the space age.

1962Launch on an AtlasLaunch
Mercury-Atlas 6 carries John Glenn toward orbit to the call 'Godspeed, John Glenn.'
1962First American to orbit EarthOrbiter
Glenn circles the planet three times in just under five hours.
1962Heat-shield scareMilestone
A false sensor warning leads controllers to keep the retro-pack on through re-entry as a precaution.
1962Atlantic splashdownSplashdown
Friendship 7 is recovered by the destroyer USS Noa after a tense return.
1998Return to orbit at seventy-sevenMilestone
Glenn flies again aboard Shuttle Discovery, the oldest person yet to reach space.

Images

John Glenn boards Friendship 7 — NASA (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

Overall view of astronaut John H — NASA · NASA Image Library

Camera Aboard "Friendship 7" - Astronaut John Glenn - Spaceflight — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Camera Aboard "Friendship 7" - Photographs Astronaut John Glenn During Spaceflight — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft is retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Astronaut John Glenn, Jr. - Insertion - Mercury Spacecraft - Cape — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

MERCURY-ATLAS (MA)-6 - SUITING-UP - CAPE — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Mercury Project — NASA/MSFC · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image