|NASA Logo                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              | A Major Achievement and a Sign of More to Come: The 40th Anniversary of the Friendship 7 mission                                                                                                                                                                                                                | A Major Achievement and a Sign of More to Come: The 40th Anniversary of the Friendship 7 mission                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | A Major Achievement and a Sign of More to Come: The 40th Anniversary of the Friendship 7 mission | 
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|John Glenn Chronology Pictures                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | John Glenn Chronology Pictures                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | John Glenn Chronology Pictures                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | John Glenn Chronology Pictures                                                                   | 
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|On February 20, 1962, John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American 

              to orbit Earth. An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft 

              into Earth orbit and enabled Glenn to circle 

              Earth three times. The flight lasted a total of 4 hours, 55 minutes, 

              and 23 seconds before the Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down 

              in the ocean. Most major systems worked smoothly, and the flight 

              was a great success as an engineering feat.

            This Mercury-Atlas (MA) 6 mission also reestablished NASA and the 

              U.S. as a strong contender in the space race with the Soviet Union. 

              The Soviet Union had launched the worlds first spacecraft, 

              Sputnik, in October 1957 and had also sent the first human, Yuri 

              Gagarin, into space on April 1961. NASA responded by sending the 

              first American, Alan Shepard, into space in May 1961, but Shepards 

              flight was only a suborbital lob, whereas Gagarin had orbited Earth. 

              With Glenns orbital mission, NASA was finally able to pull 

              back even with the Soviets.

            The flight was the culmination of a tremendous amount of work in 

              a relatively short time. On October 7, 1958, the newly formed NASA 

              had announced Project |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | Mercury, its first major undertaking. The objectives were threefold: 

              to place a piloted spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, 

              observe human performance in such conditions, and recover the human 

              and the spacecraft safely. Despite Shepards successful first 

              flight, many questions had still remained about how Americans could 

              survive and function in space.

            The success of the Friendship 7 mission enabled NASA to accelerate 

              further its efforts with Project Mercury. During less than five 

              years, from Mercurys start to finish, more than two million 

              people from government and industry pooled their skills and experience 

              to produce and manage the Nations first six piloted spaceflights. 

              Mercury flights demonstrated that people could survive in microgravity 

              for over a day without deterioration of normal physiological functions.

            Mercury also set the stage for Projects Gemini and Apollo during 

              the 1960s and all later U.S. human spaceflight activities. Thus, 

              the MA-6 mission of Friendship 7 was both a capstone event and the 

              beginning of many more achievements in human spaceflight for NASA.

              Stephen J. Garber
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        Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator

        Chris Gamble, Web Links Author 

        For further information, e-mail histinfo@hq.nasa.gov

      Designed by Douglas Ortiz and 

        edited by Lisa Jirousek

        NASA Printing and Design |