Glenn was one of the Mercury Seven military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. He was the third American, and the fifth person, to be in space.

2022年2月18日 · On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John H. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7. Left: The Headquarters of the Space Task Group (STG) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Right: Robert R. Gilruth, director of the STG.

2025年1月16日 · John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, had made a single orbit of Earth in 1961.) Glenn also served in the U.S. Senate from 1975 to 1999.

2024年6月10日 · Astronaut John Glenn relaxes aboard the USS Noa after being recovered from the Atlantic near Grand Turk Island after his historic Mercury flight. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February, 20, 1962 in his “Friendship 7” capsule. The Noa picked him up 21 minutes after impact.

2015年12月8日 · John Glenn was a NASA astronaut who, in 1962, made history by becoming the first American to orbit Earth. He was one of the "Mercury 7," NASA's first astronaut class.

2014年4月2日 · John Glenn was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. He also served as a U.S senator from Ohio.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962.

2023年7月25日 · 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.

Sixty-three years ago, on February 20, 1962, Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times in the Friendship 7 spacecraft. To honor the legacy of this aeronautical feat, we take a closer look at Glenn’s life and career and the lead-up to this monumental mission.

NASA selected Glenn to be one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts in 1959. In addition to a lustrious carreer in the Navy he serves as a U.S. Senator from 1987 to 1995. After retiring from the Senate at at age 77 he becomes the oldest person to travel in space when he returns to space aboard the Space Shutttle Discovery.