Claim: John Glenn was trained to pilot a spacecraft.

Mercury-Atlas 6 -LRB- MA-6 -RRB- was the third human spaceflight for the U.S. and part of Project Mercury . Conducted by NASA on February 20 , 1962 , the mission was piloted by astronaut John Glenn , who performed three orbits of the Earth , making him the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth.The Soviet Union had already placed two cosmonauts into orbit ; Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 on April 12 , 1961 and Gherman Titov on Vostok 2 on August 6 , 1961 . The two previous U.S. astronauts in space , Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom , had flown sub-orbital missions .   The Mercury spacecraft , named Friendship 7 , was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral , Florida . After four hours and 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth 's atmosphere , splashed down in the North Atlantic Ocean and was safely taken aboard .   The event was named an IEEE Milestone in 2011 .