In this historic capsule, John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth. Glenn's flight was the third manned mission of Project Mercury, following two suborbital flights by astronauts in 1961. Glenn's three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, was a sterling success, as he overcame problems with the automatic control system that would have ended an unmanned flight. But reentry was tense, as a faulty telemetry signal from the spacecraft indicated that the heat shield might be loose. Mission Control instructed Glenn not to jettison the retrorocket package after firing in order to better hold the heat shield in place. Glenn reentered successfully and splashed down in the Atlantic 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds after launch.
NASA transferred Friendship 7 to the Smithsonian Institution in 1963, which has exhibited it in buildings on the National Mall ever since.
By orbiting the Earth, John Glenn showed that the United States could compete with the Soviet Union in the Cold War space race.
- Carried First American into Orbit
| Astronaut | John H. Glenn, Jr. |
| Manufacturer | McDonnell Aircraft Corp. |
| Country of Origin | United States of America |
| Materials | Skin and Structure: Titanium Heat shield: Phenolic resin, fiberglass Shingles: Nickel-steel alloy, beryllium |
| Dimensions | Overall: 190.5 × 226.1cm, 875.4kg (6 ft. 3 in. × 7 ft. 5 in., 1930lb.) |
| Credit Line | Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| Inventory Number | A19670176000 |
Where this page came from
This page was imported from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Released by the Smithsonian Institution under CC0 through Smithsonian Open Access.
Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from n2t.net
1
0
0
0
Comments
