#mercury program

Relaxing after the mission. Astronaut John Glenn kicks back following his historic Project Mercury flight to become the 1st American to orbit the globe. His 5 hour flight in Feb ‘62 orbited Earth 3x before splashdown. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was both the 1st human in space & to orbit the globe in his Vostok craft in April ‘61. Glenn continued his NASA career to accomplish the formidable feat of being the oldest in space, at that time, at 77 years of age during a Space Shuttle Discovery flight in 1995; a true space pioneer & legend.

The Mercury Capsules that took John Glenn, Friendship 7 bottom, and Alan Shepard, Freedom 7 top, to space with Alan Shepard being the first American and Second person in space and John Glenn being the first to orbit the Earth. True American Hero’s that helped us change our future.