Feb 10, 2017 · We recently took new photographs of the Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft following its conservation. This is the same spacecraft that John Glenn piloted into Earth orbit, an American first. The images reveal details of the spacecraft that can be easy to overlook when taking the capsule in as a whole.

The Mercury spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After three orbits, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the North Atlantic Ocean, and was safely taken aboard USS Noa.

Feb 12, 2024 · An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit and enabled astronaut John 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.

Feb 18, 2022 · Three months after its Earth orbital flight, the Friendship 7 capsule began its next mission, popularly known as its “fourth-orbit tour.” The U.S. Information Agency and NASA organized a three-month round-the-world tour that took it to more than 20 countries, including all that hosted a NASA tracking station.

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

The astronauts named their own capsule, and followed it with the number 7 to signify the teamwork of the seven original astronauts. The capsules were Freedom 7 (Shepard), Liberty Bell 7 (Grissom), Friendship 7 (Glenn), Aurora 7 (Carpenter), Sigma 7 (Schirra) and Faith 7 (Cooper).

Jun 26, 2017 · Encased in a bulky, pressurized suit, strapped into a seat, and crammed into a tiny capsule, Glenn put his life at risk as he traveled at 17,500 miles per hour 160 miles above Earth.

Jun 9, 2023 · The Mercury Project 'Friendship 7' space capsule, in which U.S. astronaut John Glenn orbited the Earth three times on Feb. 20, 1962, is unloaded from a U.S. Air Force aircraft before being displayed at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, France, on May 18, 1962.

Feb 20, 2022 · His four hours and 55 minutes spent inside a tiny Mercury capsule that he had named “Friendship 7” galvanized a new generation to push ahead with President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Yet Glenn’s three-orbit mission on 20 February 1962 almost cost him his life.

…20, 1962, his space capsule, Friendship 7, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its orbit ranged from approximately 161 to 261 km (100 to 162 miles) in altitude. The flight went mostly according to plan, aside from a faulty thruster that forced Glenn to control Friendship 7 manually. A faulty… Read More; Mercury program