An American orbits earth - Feb 20, 1962 - HISTORY.com An American orbits earth Publisher A+E Networks From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Hershel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut. Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America’s first astronauts. A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes. Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov. In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth.

Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7. In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted further ahead in the space race when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits. As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived. It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television. After separating from its launching rocket, the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, “Capsule is turning around.

Oh, that view is tremendous.” During Friendship 7‘s first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule’s tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule’s air-conditioning system. Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7‘s automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft. Toward the end of Glenn’s third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense speed, the capsule would be incinerated if the shield failed to absorb and dissipate the extremely high reentry temperatures. It was decided that the craft’s retrorockets, usually jettisoned before reentry, would be left on in order to better secure the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into Earth’s atmosphere.

During Glenn’s fiery descent back to Earth, the straps holding the retrorockets gave way and flapped violently by his window as a shroud of ions caused by excessive friction enveloped the spacecraft, causing Glenn to lose radio contact with mission control. As mission control anxiously waited for the resumption of radio transmissions that would indicate Glenn’s survival, he watched flaming chunks of retrorocket fly by his window. After four minutes of radio silence, Glenn’s voice crackled through loudspeakers at mission control, and Friendship 7 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. He was picked up by the USS destroyer Noa, and his first words upon stepping out of the capsule and onto the deck of the Noa were, “It was hot in there.” He had spent nearly five hours in space. Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. He later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the “Clean Marine” in the years after his historic flight.

Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall. In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Discovery. On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging. In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio.

Related Videos Glenn Orbits Earth 3 Times Safely Glenn Orbits Earth 3 Times Safely Picked up in Capsule By Destroyer 81,000 Mile Trip Flight Aides Feared for the Capsule as it Began its Re-Entry By Richard Witkin Special to The New York Times RELATED HEADLINES Col.

Glenn Flown to Isle for Check: He Feels Tired but Elated -- Goes to Grand Turk for Report and Examination President Will Greet Him in Florida: The President's Statement: Kennedy Praises 'Wonderful Job': Tells Glenn Nation is 'Really Proud of You' -- Welcome at White House Planned New York Pauses to 'Watch' Glenn: Millions Rivet Attention on Astronaut in Flight Moscow, Unmoved, Gives News of Orbit OTHER HEADLINES Carlino Cleared in Shelter Case by Ethics Panel Lane Scored in Unanimous Report, Which He Calls 'Cynical and Callous' Jersey Bus Strike Settled; Service is Due Tomorrow Rosenthal Wins Queens Election: But Democrat-Liberal Has Margin of Only 193 Votes -- Machines Guarded Rockefeller Bars Korea War Bonus: Voices Opposition in Face of Legislators' Backing Adenauer Wants Parley on Berlin: Suggests Foreign Ministers of Big Four Meet 'Soon' Urban Plan Vote Put Off in Senate: Administration Rebuffed on Forcing Issue to Floor McNamara Reports Gains by Vietnamese Leaders of Algeria Back Peace Terms Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 20 -- John H. Glenn Jr.

orbited three times around the earth today and landed safely to become the first American to make such a flight. The 40-year-old Marine Corps lieutenant colonel traveled about 81,000 miles in 4 hours 56 minutes before splashing into the Atlantic at 2:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. He had been launched from here at 9:47 A. M. The astronaut's safe return was no less a relief than a thrill to the Project Mercury team, because there had been real concern that the Friendship 7 capsule might disintegrate as it rammed back into the atmosphere. There had also been a serious question whether Colonel Glenn could complete three orbits as planned. But despite persistent control problems, he managed to complete the entire flight plan. Lands in Bahamas Area The astronaut's landing place was near Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas, about 700 miles southeast of here. Still in his capsule, he was plucked from the water at 3:01 P. M. with a boom and block and tackle by the destroyer Noa. The capsule was deposited on deck at 3:04.

Colonel Glenn's first words as he stepped out onto the Noa's deck were: "It was hot in there." He quickly obtained a glass of ice tea. He was in fine condition except for two skinned knuckles hurt in the process of blowing out the side hatch of the capsule. The colonel was transferred by helicopter to the carrier Randolph, whose recovery helicopters had raced the Noa for the honor of making the pick-up. After a meal and extensive "de-briefing" aboard the carrier, he was flown to Grand Turk by submarine patrol plane for two days of rest and interviews on technical, medical and other aspects of his flight. The Noa, nearest ship to the capsule as it parachuted into the ocean, took just twenty-one minutes to close the six-mile gap, lift the capsule aboard with a bomb-block-and-tackle rig and place it gently on the deck. Colonel Glenn first was set to wriggle out of the narrow top. But when difficulty was encountered in getting one of the bulkheads loose, the explosive side hatch was blown off, and the man from space stepped out on deck, apparently in excellent shape. He was soon afterward transferred to the carrier Randolph.

In the course of his three orbits, Colonel Glenn reported frequently to tracking stations at various points on earth and to the control center here. Invariably, he said that his condition was fine. Shortly after Colonel Glenn was picked up by the Noa, he received congratulations on his feat from President Kennedy by radio telephone. A situation that seemed at the moment to pose the greatest danger developed near the end of the flight. A signal radioed from the capsule indicated that the heat shield- the blunt forward end made of ceramic-like material that dispels the friction heat of re-entry and chars in the process might be torn away before it could do its job. If it had, the flight would have had a tragic end. Signal is Received The signal, received as the capsule was traveling between Hawaii and the West Coast, indicated that the heat shield had become unlatched from the main capsule body. This action was not intended to happen until the final stage of the parachute descent. At that point, it would fall a few feet, and deploy, between it and the capsule base, a cloth landing bag to cushion the impact on the water. Colonel Glenn was asked by radio to flip a switch to check whether the shield had, in fact, become unlatched.

When the light did not go on, it appeared that the "unlatch" signal had been spurious. But the Mercury team was taking no chances. It changed the sequence of re-entry events to try to insure that, even if unlatched, the heat shield would not fall away prematurely. Colonel Glenn, apparently sensing possible serious trouble, asked: "What are the reasons for this? Do you have any reasons?' "Not at this time," came the reply from the control center. Normally, after the firing of the three braking rockets to bring the capsule out of orbit, the empty braking-rocket package is jettisoned. Jettisoning was delayed today so that, in case the heat shield had become unlatched, the rocket-packet straps would hold the shield in place until this function was taken over by the force of re-entry into the atmosphere. The package burned on re-entry. The heat shield did not drop away until it was supposed to. This indicated that the signal that had caused so much anxiety had, in fact, been a false one. 100,000 See Launching The whole continent watched on television as Colonel Glenn's capsule was launched. The world listened by radio.

And almost 100,000 persons had a direct view from here and the beaches around as the Atlas rocket booster bore the Project Mercury capsule upward with a thrust of 360,000 pounds. The Friendship 7 was lofted into a trajectory that varied between a low point, or perigee, of about ninety-nine miles, and a high point, or apogee, of 162 miles. It traveled at a speed of about 17,530 miles an hour and went from day to night three times before whirling east across the Pacific on the final leg of the flight. Some 300 miles west of the California coast, three retro, or braking rockets slowed the capsule enough to bring it out of orbit. The elated astronaut on board radioed, "Boy, that was a real fireball of a ride!" as the capsule rammed back into the atmosphere. Besides generating heat that gave him a spectacular moment of fireworks outside his capsule window, the re-entry ended Colonel Glenn's long hours of weightlessness and shoved him forcefully back against his contoured couch. At 2:43 P.

M., a sixty-three foot red-and-white parachute deposited the Friendship 7 on gentle Caribbean waters. After the capsule had been picked up by the Noa and safely placed on her deck, Colonel Glenn emerged triumphant in his gleaming silver space suit. Sends Words of Trouble It was on his first turn around the globe that Colonel Glenn sent word of erratic behavior by the attitude control system. This caused some concern almost to the end of the fight. The system is designed to control the capsule's attitude in space. This does not mean that it in any way alters the course of the capsule over the ground. The course is set once the Air Force Atlas booster has imparted to the capsule its speed and direction, and has been dropped away. The astronaut exercised control over the capsule attitude until after the Atlas booster rocket had finished burning and dropped away. During the climb to space, the Atlas provides the guidance and attitude control. Its engines swivel like a juggler's palm under a broom-stick. The attitude system, rather, controls the orientation of the capsule -- whether the forward end tilts up or down; whether the capsule rolls one way or the other.

If the capsule moves out of proper line on any of the three axes, it can be realigned by squirting hydrogen peroxide through tiny jets. There are two completely independent systems for making these corrections. One is called automatic; the other manual. There are different ways to operate each system. Used Automatic System When the trouble developed, Colonel Glenn was flying by the completely automatic method. Gyroscopes were set to the desired attitudes. And when the capsule strayed too far, squirts of hydrogen peroxide were to be automatically ejected through the proper jets. On this system, there are four jets for roll; four for pitch up and down; and four for yaw right and left. Two of the four jets in each set have a thrust of only one pound, while the other two have much larger thrusts. Only the small jets are supposed to be brought into play during the main portion of the orbital journey. The large ones are mainly for more radical corrections necessary when attitude changes are likely to be most violent - coming back from orbit. What happened to Colonel Glenn's capsule was that the small jets did not do their job.

When the capsule drifted beyond the proper limits, and the small jets did not respond, the larger jets, with twenty-four pounds of thrust, automatically cut in. Dangers Are Described A similar malfunction occurred on the roll jets during the second orbit of the flight made by Enos the chimpanzee last year. Because there was no human aboard to analyze the trouble and make corrections, Enos's mission had to be ended one-orbit ahead of schedule. The danger today was that the large jets would consume the hydrogen peroxide too fast and that, when it came time to perform the important return-from-orbit maneuver, there would be none left to orient the capsule properly for re-entry. Colonel Glenn initially met the problem by switching to a technique called fly-by-wire. He controlled the vehicle by manually moving the control stick. This was not the regular "manual" system. The stick was electronically connected to the same jets used in the completely automatic system. But it had the result of making very finely calculated corrections that did not waste hydrogen peroxide. At later stages of the flight, Colonel Glenn switched to the completely independent "manual" system that used six different jets, two for each axis.

The amount of squirt ejected through these jets was also determined by how far the control stick moved, and it wasted no hydrogen peroxide. The original trouble seemed to have disappeared by the time the colonel was ready to return from orbit. He successfully used the automatic system for the difficult re-entry maneuver, while keeping himself ready to switch immediately to manual controls if the trouble recurred. It did not. 10 Previous Attempts Today's orbital flight had been scheduled for just before Christmas. There had been ten attempts to send Colonel Glenn on his trip, and ten frustrating postponements, either because of weather or technical problems. Last, night, the weather men talked about being "cautiously optimistic." But few observers agreed with them. It did no seem possible that the mess of weather bearing down on Florida could clear away in time, and that is the way it still looked when the swarm of official observers arrived here about 4 A.M. Colonel Glenn had been awakened at 2:20 A. M. The countdown ritual was not much different from what had been witnessed on the suborbital 300-mile trips made last year by Comdr. Alan B. Shephard Jr., and on the attempt Jan. 27 to orbit Colonel Glenn.

A number of changes had been made in the mission plan since the short-range flights. The recovery system had been revised to minimize chances of another after-landing mishap that caused loss of Capt. Virgil I. Grissom's capsule and almost cost that astronaut his life. Colonel Glenn was given a special camera with which to try to take various types of pictures of cloud cover and other phenomena. He had a "bungee" chord -- a "king size rubberband" -- on which he was to pull, like an oarsman pulling oars, to see how his blood pressure was affected by exercise when he was in a weightless state. He had a medical kit of spring-loaded needles with which he could give himself various injections. One was to suppress nausea or other symptoms of motion sickness. (Colonel Glenn reported frequently that weightlessness bothered him not at all.) He had also a pain-killer, morphine; a stimulant, benzadrine; and a drug to counter shock. Under his flying suit Colonel Glenn wore a plastic tube and container for bladder relief. As the sun rose, the low-hanging clouds disappeared, and left conditions here as ideal as anyone ever had seen them.

The weather in key recovery areas at sea was equally perfect. While waiting for the count to proceed, Colonel Glenn had a chance to talk by phone with wife Anna, his 16-year-old son David, and his 15-year-old daughter Lynn. They watched the proceedings on TV from their home in Arlington, Va. Visually, there was nothing particularly memorable about take-off, at 9:47. Emotionally, the atmosphere was charged, because a man was going into orbit. There were the usual cries of "Go! Go!" at take-off. Tears came to the eyes of some viewers, in the blockhouse, at the observer's stand two miles from the launching pad, and on the beaches. But, generally, the emotions were held in. Everyone waited. Colonel Glenn apparently had a fine, exhilarating time, right from the start. He experienced some vibration along with acceleration force, as he climbed through the atmosphere. Then it smoothed out; the rocket burning stopped; the acceleration switched abruptly to weightlessness; and the capsule automatically turned its blunt end forward for the almost five hours he was to be in orbit. "Capsule is turning around," he radioed.

"Oh, that view is tremendous." He was the professional test pilot, and at the same time a human being experiencing pure joy. The tone was full of enthusiasm. On the first orbit, over the Canary Islands, Colonel Glenn reported that "the horizon is a brilliant blue." One after another of the stations in the eighteen-station world-wide tracking net locked its radar on the Friendship 7, and most of them established voice communications with the astronaut on board. Colonel Glenn received a special greeting from the citizens of Perth, Australia, who turned on the lights all over town. "Thank everybody for turning them on," he radioed. About there, too he tried the first of the special foods prepared for consumption in orbit, where there is no gravity to let liquids pour or meats stay on a dish. He ate tubes of food and meat, and malted milk tablets. An odd phenomenon occurred when he was within range of Guaymas, Mexico. He reported "luminous particles around the capsule- just thousands of them- right at sunrise over the Pacific." Maj. Gen. Leighton Davis, a Project Mercury officer here, suggested later that they might have been dust particles, or chips of paint from the capsule.

Moment of Decision Then started the troubles with the attitude controls system- troubles that were to occupy the pilot the rest of the flight. The moment of decision came near the end of the second orbit. Colonel Glenn was reporting continued erratic behavior of the controls, apparently even with the manual system- the alternative to the one that originally malfunctioned. He also was reporting warning light indicating that hydrogen peroxide fuel for at least one of the systems was getting low. To many experts listening to these events unfold, there seemed no alternative to bringing Colonel Glenn back at the end of the second orbit rather than risking another circuit. But the astronaut thought he could handle the situation without excessive trouble. Between the technical talk, there was time for joking- the exuberance of a man, who, no matter how experienced in combat and test flying, had never done anything quite like this. Then he got down to the business of preparing himself for the critical firing of the braking rockets and the re-entry into the atmosphere. Greatest Day in Space Today's flight gave the United States, by any standards, its greatest day in space. The achievement, however, could still not be considered quite up to what the Russians had done.

Colonel Glenn's flight was two orbits more than were flown by Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin, the Soviet space man, last April 12 but fourteen less than another Russian, Maj. Gherman S. Titov, flew on Aug. 6. In addition, there was some technical respects in which both Soviet orbital flights appeared to observers here to have an advantage: the size of the capsule orbited (five tons as against a ton and a half); the reliability of automatic controls; and the cabin atmosphere in which the pilot had to work. But Colonel Glenn's trip was considered by most observers here to have gone a long way toward erasing this nation's "second-best" look in space. 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 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 TeacherSource . Math . Orbiting the Earth | PBS We Have Liftoff | Orbiting The Earth | Solar System | Answers | More Math Concepts 1. John Glenn�s first ride into space was aboard a Mercury-Atlas rocket, and the time of the trip was a total of 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. This included the launching of Glenn into space, three orbits of earth, and the reentry back to earth. Assume that the three orbits of the earth lasted 4 hours and 24 minutes. How long did it take him to make one orbit of the earth? 2. The continental United States covers approximately four time zones, or very roughly 4/24 of the earth�s circumference. How long would it take Glenn to pass over the United States? 3. Glenn�s average orbital velocity was 17,544 mph. Suppose rather than being up in space, Glenn was traveling this fast on the surface of the earth.

At this speed, how long would it take him to travel from Portland, OR to Miami, FL--a distance of 2,700 miles? 4. Estimate how many miles John Glenn traveled during his orbiting of the earth. 5. Assume for a moment that John Glenn�s orbit was circular. You should know that circular orbits are rather special. Most orbits are elliptical. How high above the earth must John Glenn have been to cover this distance in three orbits? The diameter of the earth is 12,756 kilometers or 7,928 miles. For a spacecraft, satellite, or other body (such as the moon) that orbits the earth, an equation links 1) how high above the earth the object is, and 2) the period or time it takes the object to complete one orbit. This equation is Period = 2 (pi) x square root (a3/mu) The Period is the time in seconds it takes to complete one orbit. a is called the "semi major axis." Calculate this by taking the average of the altitude when the object is closest to the earth with the altitude when it is farthest from the earth and then add the radius of the earth.

Do this calculation in kilometers. Mu is the gravitational constant of the earth. This number is 398,601 km3/sec2. For your information: Miles x 1.609 gives you kilometers. Kilometers x 0.6215 gives you miles. Perigee: for an object orbiting the earth, this is the point closest to the center of the earth. Apogee: for an object orbiting the earth, this is the point farthest from the center of the earth. 6. John Glenn�s actual orbit in the Mercury spacecraft ranged from 159 km (perigee) to 265 km (apogee) above the earth. Calculate the time it took Glenn to complete one orbit using this method. The radius of the earth is approximately 6382 kilometers. 7. On the space shuttle mission, John Glenn and the rest of the crew will be about 300 miles or 482 kilometers above the earth. Assuming a circular orbit, how long will it take them to complete on orbit? Have you heard of people who have dishes in their yard or on their houses to receive TV channels?

These dishes work off of satellites that are in Geosynchronous orbits. Geosynchronous means that from our vantage point on earth, the satellite seems to remain in the same place in the sky. These are circular orbits in which the time it takes to complete one orbit is the same as the 24 hours it takes the earth to complete one revolution. So people who use these dishes don�t have to go out and adjust the dish. 8. Using the formula above, figure out how high a satellite would need to be for a geosynchronous orbit. Remember that a includes the radius of the earth. Convert your answer to miles when you are done. Photo from NASA 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. Mercury Project/John Glenn Commemorative Covers, Feb. 20, 1962 to Date /Joe Frasketi's Philatelic Space Covers John Glenn, First Space Senator Commemorative Cover Notes Special sale of Project Mercury commemorative covers for the three orbit flight of John H.Glenn, Jr.

in his space capsule "Friendship 7" on Feb. 20, 1962. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Also included are other covers commemorating John Glenn and/or his flight such as special cancels, anniversaries, foreign cancels, special events etc. Did you know that when the Project Mercury stamp (issued for the successful completion of Glenn's Mercury Project space flight) was issued on Feb. 20, 1962 there was no post office named Cape Canaveral? Cape Canaveral was a geographical name for a point of land where the launch took place. The town of Port Canaveral FL did exist at the time of the Mercury/Glenn launch and many Glenn launch covers were cancelled there. Sometime later its name was changed to Cape Canaveral. So thats why you will find no John Glenn launch "commemorative" covers with the Cape Canaveral FL cancel. The only Cape Canaveral FL cancelled covers of Feb. 20, 1962 will be "FIRST DAY COVERS" specially created by the U.S. Postal Service! All ITEMS are covers unless otherwise noted. All covers are the standard U.S.

size (number 6), as collected in the USA, unless otherwise noted. All covers are unaddressed unless otherwise noted. All covers are cacheted and a brief description is given of the event being commemorated, unless otherwise noted. If covers are autographed they are genuine. Abbreviations 01/14/1975 DC SPECIAL JOHN GLENN FIRST SPACE SENATOR COMMEMORATIVE COVER, With a Washington DC machine cancel that ties a U.S. flag stamp and a Republic of Maldives 2L. stamp to cover. The Maldives stamp shows John Glenn in his space suit and his Mercury capsule in orbit. Cover has a black and blue MAHDEEN printed cachet showing Glenn's Mercury VI space capsule orbiting Earth and printed text: "First Space Senator, John H. Glenn Jr., starts his first term of office Jan. 14, 1975. First American Space Senator Elected Nov. 5, 1974 by Voters of Ohio. First American Astronaut to Orbit Earth Feb. 20, 1962 in Mercury VI Spacecraft".

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Question: How many orbits of the earth did John Glenn make in Mercury-Atlas 6 in 1962?
Answer: 3