7 Things You May Not Know About John Glenn - History in the Headlines 7 Things You May Not Know About John Glenn December 8, 2016 By Barbara Maranzani Share HISTORY honors astronaut and former Ohio senator John Glenn, who died on December 8, 2016 at the age of 95. Share this: 7 Things You May Not Know About John Glenn Author 7 Things You May Not Know About John Glenn URL Google On February 20, 1962, John H. Glenn became the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth when he successfully completed three orbits aboard the space capsule “Friendship 7.” In the midst of Cold War tensions and amid the very real fear that the Soviet Union was winning the space race, Glenn’s accomplishment brought a sense of pride and relief to Americans and instantly made the 31-year-old Glenn a national hero. Glenn resigned from NASA in 1964, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, representing Ohio for 25 years.

In October 1998, Senator Glenn returned to space at the age of 77 as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery, making him the oldest person to fly in space. Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the age of 95, following several years of declining health. John Glenn was a star before joining the Mercury program. John Glenn (Credit: NASA) Glenn had fallen in love with flying at an early age, building model airplanes while growing up in Ohio. In 1941, Glenn discovered a U.S. Department of Commerce program looking for students to train as pilots. Just six months after he received his license, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Glenn initially enlisted in both the U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Navy aviation cadet program, but was eventually assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps. Glenn flew 59 missions in the South Pacific, where one of his wingmen was baseball legend Ted Williams. After serving in the Korean War, Glenn was appointed to a naval test pilot program, where he completed one of the world’s first supersonic transcontinental flights in 1957.

Glenn received an enormous amount of publicity following this feat, which brought him to the attention of the NACA, the predecessor to NASA, who selected him to become one of the Mercury 7 astronauts. John Glenn gave his space capsule it’s famous nickname. Glenn inspecting the artwork design for “Friendship 7.” (Credit: NASA) The official name for Glenn’s mission was Mercury-Atlas 6. “Mercury” for the mission program itself (named after the Roman god of speed), and “Atlas 6” to indicate that this was the 6th mission to use the newer, faster Atlas rocket as a launch vehicle. As was common practice among most pilots, the astronauts selected for the Mercury program often gave their capsules personal nicknames—Glenn asked his children for suggestions on what he should name the vessel before finally deciding on the word “Friendship” and adding the number “7” to honor his fellow Mercury members. Glenn’s mission was delayed numerous times, leading to concern and anxiety. Guenter Wendt, the original pad leader for NASA’s manned programs, coaxes a smile from Glenn after a postponement of the mission.

(Credit: NASA) Originally scheduled for December 1961 and then pushed to January 13, problems with the new Atlas rocket that would serve as the space capsule’s launching pad caused a two-week delay. On January 27, with television crews already set up to broadcast from both the launch site and Glenn’s home, where his wife, Annie, and his children were anxiously watching, poor weather conditions forced another postponement. When the mission was scrapped, the reporters, accompanied by none other than Vice President Lyndon Johnson, tried to gain access to Glenn’s home in hopes of interviewing his wife. Annie refused to speak to them, and when John heard about the pressure put on his wife, he backed her up, leading to a clash with government officials. The launch was delayed yet again on January 30 after a fuel leak was discovered, followed by yet another weather delay. Finally, with all mechanical issues solved and fair weather forecasted, Glenn was once again strapped into Friendship 7 early on the morning of February 20, 1962.

Glenn didn’t actually hear the legendary words “Godspeed, John Glenn.” John Glenn and Scott Carpenter reviewing the flight plan for the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Credit: NASA) As mission control performed its final system checks, test conductor Tom O’Malley initiated the launch sequence, adding a personal prayer, “May the good Lord ride all the way,” to which Carpenter, the backup astronaut for the mission, added, “Godspeed, John Glenn.” Carpenter later explained that he had come up with the phrase on the spot, but its did hold significance for most test pilots and astronauts: “In those days, speed was magic…and nobody had gone that fast. If you can get that speed, you’re home-free.” The phrase soon became part of the public consciousness, but Glenn himself didn’t hear Carpenter’s comment until he had returned to Earth. Due to a glitch in Glenn’s radio, Carpenter’s microphone wasn’t on his frequency. There were several scary moments aboard Friendship 7. Glenn aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. The launch of Friendship 7 went flawlessly, and Glenn encountered few issues in the early stages of the flight.

During his second orbit, mission control noticed a sensor was issuing a warning that Friendship 7’s heat shield and landing bag were not secure, putting the mission, and Glenn in danger. Officials did not immediately inform Glenn of the potential problem, instead asking him to run a series of small tests on the system to see if that resolved the issue, which eventually clued Glenn in to their concerns. After a series of discussions, it was decided that rather than following standard procedures to discard the retrorocket (an engine designed to slow down the capsule upon reentry), Glenn would keep the rocket in place to help secure the heat shield. He successfully reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after a flight of 4 hours and 55 minutes. When officials inspected the recovered capsule, they determined that the heat shield had never been in danger and a faulty sensor had caused the problem. Glenn—and NASA—were mystified by an unusual sighting during the mission. A photo of Earth taken by John Glenn during the mission. (Credit: NASA) During the first of Glenn’s three orbits, he reported seeing a series of small particles floating outside his capsule.

As he reported to NASA, he had never seen anything like it, and he thought it looked like a series of luminescent stars surrounding him. Glenn referred to the specks as “fireflies,” and tried banging on his capsule walls to see if he could make them move, which he could. Some NASA scientists worried that the sparks were a malfunctioning part of the space capsule or that’s Glenn’s mysterious vision was caused by a medical condition he encountered while in space, while others tried to find a more spiritual meaning to the celestial “fireflies.” So, what were they? The mystery was solved later that year, when Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter made his orbital flight aboard Aurora 7. Carpenter also reported seeing the particles, and to him they looked like snowflakes. Turns out, Carpenter was pretty close to the truth. They were indeed bits of frozen condensation on the capsule’s exterior that broke off as it moved from through areas of varying temperatures. Glenn returned to space, 36 years after Friendship 7. STS-95 payload specialist John Glenn aboard the space shuttle Discovery in November 1998.

(Credit: NASA) John Glenn remained with NASA until 1964, but did not return to space in any of the later Mercury missions. It is believed that President Kennedy and other government officials, well aware of the symbolic importance of the first man to orbit the Earth, ordered NASA to keep him grounded, for fear of his being injured or killed in a space program that was still, in many ways, in the developmental stage. Glenn returned to Ohio, where he became a successful businessman. He later entered politics, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, serving four terms. Glenn maintained close contacts with NASA, and spoke often of his regret at not having been part of subsequent missions, including the lunar landings. In 1998, however, John Glenn got his wish and returned to space. Though it had been more than 35 years since he had last suited up, Glenn was selected as part of the crew aboard the space shuttle Discovery. His participation, at the age of 77, would allow scientists to study the affects of space travel on the elderly.

When Glenn returned from the nine-day mission, he and his fellow crew members were welcomed home with a ticker-tape parade in New York City, marking the second time Glenn had received such an honor. Tags Friendship 7 Friendship 7 8/27/61 - Capsule arrived at Cape Canaveral 2/15/62 - Flight Safety Review Payload: Spacecraft No. 13, Vehicle Number 109-D Mission Objective: Place a man into earth orbit, observe his reactions to the space environment and safely return him to earth to a point where he could be readily found. The Mercury flight plan during the first orbit was to maintain optimum spacecraft attitude for radar tracking and communication checks. Orbit: Altitude: 162.2 x 100 statute miles Inclination: 32.54 Duration: 0 Days, 4 hours, 55 min, 23 seconds Distance: 75,679 statute miles Max G: 7.7 Launch: February 20, 1962. 9:47:39 am EST. Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 14.

Powered flight lasted 5 minutes 1 second and was completed normally. The mercury countdown began on 1/27/62 and was performed in two parts. Precount checks out the primary spacecraft systems, followed by a 17.5 hour hold for pyrotechnic checks, electrical connections and peroxide system servicing. Then the countdown began. The launch countdown proceeded to the T-13 minute mark and then was canceled due to adverse weather conditions. After cancellation, the mission team decided to replace the carbon dioxide absorber unit and the peroxide system had to be drained and flushed to prevent corrosion. Launch vehicle systems were then revalidated and a leak was discovered in the inner bulkhead of the fuel tank that required 4-6 days to repair. The launch was rescheduled to 2/13/62 and then to 2/14/62 to all the bulkhead work to complete. The precount picked up again on 2/13/62, 2/15/62 and 2/16/62 but was canceled each time due to adverse weather. The launch was then rescheduled for 2/20/62.

During the launch countdown on 2/20/62, all systems were energized and final overall checks were made. the count started at T-390 minutes by installing and connecting the escape-rocket igniter. The service structure was then cleared and the spacecraft was powered to verify no inadvertent pyrotechnic ignition. The personnel then returned to the service structure to prepare for static firing of the reaction control system at T-250 minutes. The spacecraft was then prepared for boarding at T-120 minutes. The hatch was put into place at T-90 minutes. During installation a bolt was broken, and the hatch had to be removed to replace the bolt causing a 40 minute hold. From T-90 to T-55 final mechanical work and spacecraft checks were made and the service was evacuated and moved away from the launch vehicle. At T-45 minutes, a 15 minute hold was required to add fuel to the launch vehicle and at T-22 minutes and additional 25 minutes was required for filling the liquid-oxygen tanks as a result of a minor malfunction in the ground support equipment used to pump liquid oxygen into the launch vehicle.

At approximately T-35 minutes, filling of the liquid-oxygen tanks began and final spacecraft and launch vehicle systems checks were started. At T-10 minutes the spacecraft went on internal power. At T-6min 30 seconds, a 2 minute hold was required to make a quick check of the network computer at Bermuda. The launch vehicle went on internal power at T-3 minutes. At T-35 seconds the spacecraft umbilical was ejected and at T-0 the main engines started. Liftoff occurred at T+4 seconds at 9:47:39am EST. Landing: February 20, 1962. 14:43:02 am EST. 800 miles southeast of Bermuda. Recovered by the destroyer USS Noa. Lookouts on the destroyer sighted the main parachute at an altitude of 5,000 ft from a range of 5nm. The Noa had the spacecraft aboard 21 minutes after landing and astronaut John Glenn remained in the spacecraft during pickup. Original plans had called for egress through the top hatch but Glenn was becoming uncomfortably warm and it was decided to exit by the easier egress path.

Mission Highlights: Mission Successful. First American in orbit. Total time weightless 4 hours 48min 27sec. During the flight only two major problems were encountered: (1) a yaw attitude control jet apparently clogged at the end of the first orbit, forcing the astronaut to abandon the automatic control system for the manual-electrical fly-by-wire system; and (2) a faulty switch in the heat shield circuit indicated that the clamp holding the shield had been prematurely released- a signal later found to be false. During reentry, however, the retropack was not jettisoned but retained as a safety measure to hold the heat shield in place in the event it had loosened. Astronaut Bio: John Glenn, Jr. 1/99 John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (former) PERSONAL DATA: Born July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. Married to the former Anna Margaret Castor of New Concord, Ohio. They have two grown children and two grandchildren. EDUCATION: Glenn attended primary and secondary schools in New Concord, Ohio.

He attended Muskingum College in New Concord and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. Muskingum College also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in engineering. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from nine colleges or universities. SPECIAL HONORS: Glenn has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions, and holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his service during World War II and Korea. Glenn also holds the Navy Unit Commendation for service in Korea, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Navy's Astronaut Wings, the Marine Corps' Astronaut Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. EXPERIENCE: He entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March 1942 and was graduated from this program and commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. After advanced training, he joined Marine Fighter Squadron 155 and spent a year flying F-4U fighters in the Marshall Islands.

During his World War II service, he flew 59 combat missions. After the war, he was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol and served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950 Glenn was an instructor in advanced flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico, Virginia. In Korea he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the in F-86 Sabrejet. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea Glenn downed three MIG's in combat along the Yalu River. After Korea, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. After graduation, he was project officer on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (now Bureau of Naval Weapons) in Washington from November 1956 to April 1959, during which time he also attended the University of Maryland.

In July 1957, while project officer of the F8U Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York, spanning the country in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. Glenn has nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, with approximately 3,000 hours in jet aircraft. NASA EXPERIENCE: Glenn was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, in April 1959 after his selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut. The Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1962. Glenn flew on Mercury-6 (February 20, 1962) and STS-95 (October 29 to November 7, 1998), and has logged over 218 hours in space. Prior to his first flight, Glenn had served as backup pilot for Astronauts Shepard and Grissom.

When astronauts were given special assignments to ensure pilot input into the design and development of spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout and control functioning, including some of the early designs for the Apollo Project. Glenn resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center on January 16, 1964. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 1965. He was a business executive from 1965 until his election to the United States Senate in November 1974. Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999. SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: On February 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, he completed a successful three-orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of approximately 162 statute miles and an orbital velocity of approximately 17,500 miles per hour.

Glenn's "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles southeast of KSC in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island. Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. STS-95 Discovery (October 29 to November 7, 1998) was a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and investigations on space flight and the aging process. The mission was accomplished in 134 Earth orbits, traveling 3.6 million miles in 213 hours and 44 minutes. JANUARY 1999 This is the only version available from NASA. Updates must be sought direct from the above named individual. John Glenn, First American Astronaut to Orbit the Earth in Mercury Friendship 7: 50th Anniversary - ABC News ABC News John Glenn, First American Astronaut to Orbit the Earth in Mercury Friendship 7: 50th Anniversary By NED POTTER WATCH John Glenn's Orbital Flight: Feb.

20, 1962 0 Shares Email The world was such a scary place in 1962 that there were actually Americans who volunteered to leave it. The Cold War was at its most chilling. The United States had been embarrassed by the first Soviet satellite and the first Soviet cosmonaut . President John F. Kennedy asked his aides if there was something -- anything -- America could do to beat the Russians in space. NASA tried, but the Atlantic floor off Cape Canaveral was littered with the wreckage of failed rockets. nullPlay Oct. 29, 1998: John Glenn Returns to Space America did not just need better boosters, it needed bigger heroes. It found seven, the original Mercury astronauts. And the one with whom it most fell in love was John Glenn . Fifty years ago, on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn squeezed into his Friendship 7 capsule, circled the earth three times in five hours and became a national hero. "Zero-G and I feel fine," he said from his spacecraft.

"Man, that view is tremendous." Play null Historians' descriptions of the time describe a mood that seems almost alien now: a nation of people fearful of Soviet attack (the Cuban missile crisis would happen eight months later), glued to their black-and-white TV sets, watching a man in a silver spacesuit climb into a tiny capsule and disappear into the sky. It was likened to single combat. The Soviets were Goliath. Glenn was David. "We hadn't really thought that any nation could even touch us technically," Glenn said in a 1998 interview with ABC News . "And all at once, here was this bunch of Soviets over there, for heaven's sake, outdoing the United States of America in technical and scientific things." After the flight of the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in May 1961, Kennedy had committed the United States to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Glenn later said he wondered at the time how NASA would pull it off. The Atlas rocket that would launch his Mercury capsule was famously unreliable; it had blown up on several test flights. The astronauts had volunteered to leave Earth, but they also planned to return.

Glenn named his spacecraft Friendship 7, honoring his fellow astronauts. He would make three orbits of the earth. His launch was scheduled and scrubbed no fewer than 10 times in four months. The Flight of Friendship 7 And then it was launch day -- Feb. 20, 1962 . Glenn woke early, had breakfast, put on his pressure suit and climbed into Friendship 7 before dawn. The countdown moved toward zero. In the control center, Glenn's backup pilot, Scott Carpenter, keyed a microphone and said, "Godspeed, John Glenn." Glenn did not hear him; Carpenter was not on his radio link. Instead, he felt a jolt as the rocket left the launch pad. "Roger, liftoff, and the clock is running. We're under way." John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. The Atlas did not fail. Five minutes later, he was in orbit. The nation hung on every moment of his flight, one man, alone in the void, in a capsule so small (6 feet in diameter at the base) that he could not stretch out his arms. He reported that weightlessness was pleasant.

He marveled at the "fireflies" -- later determined to be flecks of frost -- that drifted away from Friendship 7 when he rapped on the hull of the spacecraft. John Glenn's Friendship 7 Spaceflight, 50 Years Later Glenn was having a wonderful time. But then, trouble. As he began his second orbit, Mission Control received a signal suggesting that the heat shield, designed to prevent the capsule from burning up during reentry, had come loose. Worried controllers feared they might lose Glenn. They ordered him not to jettison the capsule's retro rockets, strapped on over the heat shield, after he fired them to descend from orbit. The outside of the capsule heated to 3,000 degrees as the atmosphere slowed it. Glenn watched as chunks of debris flew past the window and wondered whether it was the retro pack breaking up, or the heat shield. It held. He splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. America had probably seen nothing so daring since the transatlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh. Crowds mobbed him at a ticker-tape parade in New York. Kennedy, who saw Glenn's star power, welcomed him at the White House.

He returned to work at NASA and lobbied for another flight, but the Kennedy administration had quietly let his bosses know he was too much of a national icon to risk in space again. The Americans would gradually overtake the Soviets in space. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. But we no longer live in the space age. Glenn has complained publicly that since the space shuttles were retired last year, America has not had a way to launch its own astronauts into orbit. And Glenn's mantle as hero has only taken him so far; a run for president in 1984 left him in debt for years. John Glenn is 90 now, dividing his time between Washington and Ohio after a long career in the U.S. Senate. He and his wife Annie have been married for 69 years, slowed only by the inevitable maladies of age. Glenn did, after years of lobbying, get to fly on a space shuttle mission in 1998. He was 77 by then, arguing that the effects of weightlessness -- bone and muscle loss -- are similar to the effects of aging.

While he was in orbit he said he was having such a good time that he might like another flight after that, but Annie, visibly angry, put a quick stop to that. "One thing I promised Annie the day we were married," he once said, "is I would do everything I could to keep life from being boring." 0 Shares Friendship 7 - Home 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 This date in science: John Glenn first American to orbit Earth | Space | EarthSky This date in science: John Glenn first American to orbit Earth By EarthSky in Space | February 20, 2016 On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He made three turns around the planet before returning safely. February 20, 1962. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on this date. He made three turns around the planet before returning safely in his space capsule, which was called Friendship 7. He followed two Russian cosmonauts in making this early orbit of our planet: Yuri Gagarin ( April 1961) and Gherman Titov (August 1961).

While Glenn was in orbit, NASA controllers received an indication that the heat shield on his craft had come loose. They instructed Glenn not to jettison the rockets underneath the heat shield during re-entry, because the rockets might be able to hold the shield in place. Fortunately, the indication turned out to be a false alarm. Glenn returned to space at age 77 aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998, making him the oldest person to fly in space. His mission’s primary scientific aim at that time was to study the effects of spaceflight on seniors. John Glenn climbs into the Friendship 7 spacecraft just before making his first trip into space on February 20, 1962. Photo via NASA John Glenn and Friendship 7 Here’s what John Glenn saw on February 20, 1962. Just 5 minutes and 44 seconds after launch, Glenn offered his first words about the view from his porthole: “This is Friendship 7. Can see clear back; a big cloud pattern way back across towards the Cape.

Beautiful sight.” Three hours later, at the beginning of his third orbit, Glenn photographed this panoramic view of Florida from the Georgia border (right, under clouds) to just north of Cape Canaveral. His American homeland was 162 miles (260 kilometers) below. “I have the Cape in sight down there,” he noted to mission controllers. “It looks real fine from up here. I can see the whole state of Florida just laid out like on a map. Beautiful.” Image via NASA Bottom line: John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962. His space capsule was called Friendship 7. Godspeed Godspeed, John Glenn: 1st American in Orbit Reflects on NASA's Space Legacy By Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer | February 17, 2012 07:00am ET MORE Astronaut John Glenn photographed in space by an automatic sequence motion picture camera during his historic orbital flight on "Friendship 7" on Feb. 20, 1962.

Credit: NASA Fifty years ago, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, and his nearly five-hour expedition ushered in a new era of spaceflight for the nation. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted NASA's Mercury capsule , known as Friendship 7, three times around Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of about 162 miles (261 kilometers). Glenn's orbital milestone matched the groundbreaking achievement of the rival Soviet Union, which launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit 10 months earlier. On Monday (Feb. 20), NASA will salute 50 years of Americans in orbit by honoring Glenn and his Friendship 7 flight. Since that fateful journey, the agency landed astronauts on the moon, flew 135 space shuttle flights and constructed a $100 billion laboratory in space, among many other accomplishments. Following the Friendship 7 flight, Glenn was heralded as an American hero , and five decades later, his orbital journey still resonates with the public. "Fifty years seems like two weeks more than 50 years," Glenn, who will turn 91 on July 18, told SPACE.com.

"I think the duration that people have been interested in that, the first flights back there, have been somewhat of a surprise. We're so used to the new and the untried in this country, whether it is the equivalent in automobiles or whatever it is, that I think we've gotten used to that. So it has been a little bit of a surprise that attention has been and keeps coming back to some of those very early flights." [ Photos: John Glenn's Space Legacy ] The social and political climate Part of this fascination is because the success of Glenn's Friendship 7 flight altered the tide in the fierce Cold War competition between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. The Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in October 1957, four years later, Gagarin became the first person to reach space (and the first to orbit Earth) on April 12, 1961. "The Soviets at that time were claiming technical superiority to the United States because they could do rocket flights and ours were blowing up on the pad too often," Glenn said. "So it was against that backdrop and their claims of superiority in rocketry that we came into the program.

It was something that we felt at that time, so there was a big effort to get us back on top again." On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn rode the Friendship 7 capsule into space, the first time an American orbited the Earth. In this image, Glenn enters the capsule with assistance from technicians. Credit: NASA After years of Soviet dominance , Glenn's success in orbit evened the playing field and reinvigorated America's space program, said John Logsdon, space policy expert and professor emeritus at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "It was a time of head-on-head superpower rivalries for global leadership," Logsdon told SPACE.com. "Everyone was recovering from World War II and it was a very tense time in U.S.-Soviet relations. Having something positive happen, particularly in an area where the Soviet Union looked like it was ahead, was politically very important." [ Giant Leaps: Top Milestones of Human Spaceflight ] The flight also captivated the public, and after returning to Earth, Glenn received a hero's welcome in New York City. "It was the first of the ticker-tape parades through Manhattan," Logsdon said.

"Everyone was glued to their television sets. It was new, exciting and adventurous." It was after seeing Glenn's New York City parade that Logsdon himself was inspired to pursue a career related to space. "I was in transition back to graduate school that spring and going into political science, and I remember very vividly seeing Colonel Glenn parade through Manhattan on March 1, 1962. And it was that more than Kennedy's speech or Sputnik that got me interested in space." This image shows the launch of Friendship 7, the first American manned orbital space flight. With astronaut John Glenn aboard, the Mercury-Atlas rocket is launched from Pad 14, February 20, 1962. Credit: NASA The original seven Glenn, who was born in Cambridge, Ohio, in 1921, was one of NASA's original seven astronauts — the so-called Mercury Seven. The trials and tribulations of those involved in Project Mercury were later immortalized by author Tom Wolfe in "The Right Stuff." Selected in 1959 for the agency's first astronaut class, Glenn beat out a pool of 508 skilled, high-flying pilots and military men.

While fellow Mercury Seven astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil (Gus) Grissom flew to space before Glenn, the maximum altitude for both their flights put them only in the suborbital reaches. On that February day in 1962, Glenn circled the Earth three times in the Friendship 7 capsule before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. He became a pioneer for orbital spaceflight, and NASA would continue to push the boundaries of exploration. And after years of Americans in orbit, Glenn hopes to see that tradition continue. "I see exploration going two directions: one is macro, which is out to Mars or wherever we're going out into space and back," Glenn said. "But to me, wherever we go we should try to maximize the research return of the capabilities we are developing. And that is what develops the support for the program. It does more good for people right here on Earth and does more to support the program for the long term than anything else we could do." For instance, more emphasis should be put on the research capabilities of the International Space Station , he added. "To me, we have never really exploited our ability in low-Earth orbit," Glenn said. "The International Space Station is the most unique laboratory ever built by human beings.

It cost us over $100 billion and about 18 years to get it to the condition that it is in. We should be working on ways to do the research that makes the whole program doubly beneficial in addition to just seeing how far we can go and keep someone alive and bring him back." Life after Project Mercury Glenn left NASA in 1964 and entered into business and politics. He was elected to the United States Senate, representing his native Ohio as a Democrat, and served from 1974 to 1999. "Glenn's space career is only one facet of his life," Logsdon said. "He was a very productive senator and he made his mark on American society in a number of ways." Throughout his tenure, Glenn remained a fervent supporter of NASA and a strong voice for the American space program. [ 50 Years of Presidential Visions for Space Exploration ] And in 1998, at age 77, Glenn flew to space again on the shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission. After spending almost nine days in space, Glenn became the world's oldest astronaut, a title he still holds.

Shortly before his return to space, Glenn announced the creation of the John Glenn Institute (now the John Glenn School of Public Affairs) at Ohio State University in Columbus. The school featured a special exhibit about the Friendship 7 flight on campus and will lead a series of spaceflight forums and panels to mark the 50th anniversary. "John Glenn is, quite simply, an extraordinary American patriot," E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, said in a statement. "He is a man of boundless courage, limitless optimism and unswerving honor. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to celebrate his tremendous achievements and his important leadership at Ohio State. He is one of this university’s — and this nation’s — greatest treasures." The school is also hosting a gala dinner Monday to honor Glenn and his achievements. Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, who commanded the space shuttle Endeavour's final flight, will speak at the event. The seven crew members in training for the STS-95 mission aboard Discovery pose for photographers prior to participating in a training session at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Pictured, from the left, are Pedro Duque, Curtis Brown, Chiaki Nauto-Mukai, then-U.S. Sen. John H.

Glenn Jr. (D.-Ohio), Stephen Robinson, Steven Lindsey and Scott Parazynski. Credit: NASA NASA is also holding special events to mark the occasion. Today (Feb. 17) at 10 a.m. EST, NASA chief Charles Bolden and Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana will host a special program on NASA Television with Glenn and fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter. Three months after Glenn's Friendship 7 flight, Carpenter became the second American in orbit on May 24, 1962. A news conference will be held at 3 p.m. EST at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in the Mercury Mission Control exhibit. This event will be broadcast on NASA TV. On Saturday (Feb. 18), Glenn and Carpenter will participate in a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex honoring those who made Project Mercury possible. Cabana, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and astronaut Steve Robinson, who flew with Glenn on Discovery's STS-95 mission in 1998 will speak at the event. On Monday (Feb. 20) at 1:30 p.m.

EST, Glenn and NASA administrator Charles Bolden will speak live with the crew aboard the International Space Station. On March 2, Glenn will deliver the keynote address at a special event, called "Celebrating John Glenn's Legacy: 50 Years of Americans in Orbit," hosted by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The agency's Glenn Research Center is named for the astronaut. SPACE.com contributor Robert Pearlman, editor of the website collectSPACE.com , contributed to this report. You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow . Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . Editor's Recommendations Friendship 7 - Photos Boilerplate Mercury spacecraft being manufactured in-house by NASA Langley technicians. Basic diagrams of the Mercury spacecraft and rocket configuration. The Mercury-Atlas rocket for the Friendship 7 mission lifts off, carrying John H. Glenn, Jr., into orbit. Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., dons his silver Mercury pressure suit in preparation for launch. Glenn in his silver Mercury spacesuit during preflight training exercises at Cape Canaveral.

John Glenn: 1st American to Orbit Earth, Oldest Man in Space John Glenn: 1st American to Orbit Earth, Oldest Man in Space By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | December 8, 2015 04:45pm ET MORE Editor's note: John Glenn, a legendary NASA astronaut and American hero, died on Dec. 8, 2016 at age 95. Read our full obituary here . More coverage: America's First Spaceship: Project Mercury (Infographic) The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn made history again when, at the age of 77, he became the oldest person to travel in space. But before he was nationally recognized as a hero, he had put his life on the line for his country many times. Born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, John Herschel Glenn Jr., was the son of John and Teresa Sproat Glenn. While playing in the high school band, he met Anna Margaret Castor, and later married her. After graduation, he attended Muskingum College, where he attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Glenn entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. He ultimately flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific during World War II. Astronaut John Glenn photographed in space by an automatic sequence motion picture camera during his historic orbital flight on "Friendship 7" on Feb. 20, 1962. Credit: NASA After the war ended, Glenn served as an instructor for advanced flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He went on to fly 90 missions in Korea, downing three MiGs during the his last nine days of combat. From there, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, then went on to serve as project officer on a number of aircraft. He attended classes at the University of Maryland for two and a half years while assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the precursor to the Bureau of Naval Weapons. In July 1957, Glenn set a transcontinental speed record, flying from Los Angeles to New York in 3 hours 23 minutes. His was the first cross-country flight to average supersonic speed.

Glenn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross six times, as well as a number of other honors for his military service. He and his wife have two children. Beyond the sky In April 1959, Glenn was selected as a Project Mercury astronaut. He became part of the Mercury Seven group, the first astronauts selected by NASA. Glenn served as backup astronaut to the first two Americans in space, Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom. [ Project Mercury: Photos of NASA's 1st Manned Spaceflights ] At the time, the United States was in the midst of a race with the Soviet Union to reach the stars. Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man launched into space on April 12, 1961, beating Alan Shepard by less than a month. Gagarin's craft took him in a full orbit around Earth, making him the first person to circle the planet, as well. [ Infographic: 1st American in Orbit: How NASA & John Glenn Made History ] On Feb. 20, 1962, the United States showed that it had the same mettle as its competition.

Previous flights into space by Shepard and Grissom had not traveled all the way around the planet. When Glenn blasted into space aboard Mercury's Friendship 7 capsule, he orbited Earth three times over the course of almost five hours, traveling faster than 17,000 mph. [ VIDEO: This is Friendship 7: America's 50th On-Orbit Anniversary ] But his journey was not without hazards . After the first orbit, a mechanical problem with the automatic control system required Glenn take manual control of the craft. Sensors also indicated that the heat shield, which would protect the astronaut from the lethal temperatures created upon re-entry to the atmosphere, was loose. To help protect him on his return to Earth, Glenn kept the retrorocket pack, which was designed to be jettisoned, in place. Follow-up examination of the control system revealed that the indicator had been incorrect. The shield was fine, but the experience was surely harrowing. [ PHOTOS: John Glenn, First American in Orbit ] An active retirement Glenn retired from the Marine Corps in 1965 as a colonel. He worked as a business executive for a decade before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974.

The Ohio Democrat campaigned vigorously for funding for science, education, and space exploration. In 1984, he made a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He served as a senator until 1999. STS-95 crewmember, astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth and returned to space in 1998 aboard a Space Shuttle flight. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz, Mark Sowa Despite his advancing age, Glenn was not yet finished with the space program. On Oct. 29, 1998, while still a senator, Glenn made history again when he rode the space shuttle Discovery to become the oldest space traveler. Over the course of nine days, the shuttle orbited Earth 134 times. Glenn served as payload specialist, participating in various experiments to test how his 77-year old body responded the weightless environment. The craft also carried the SPARTAN satellite to study solar wind, and hardware for an upcoming maintenance mission on the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2012, Glenn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

He was also on hand for the retirement of the space shuttle Discovery , though he criticized the demise of the shuttle program as delaying research. Although Glenn's second flight into space was completely different from his first, both were historic, record-setting missions. But most Americans will always remember him as the first American to orbit the Earth . —Nola Taylor Redd

Question: Who first flew in Friendship 7?
Answer: John Glenn