John Glenn Becomes First American to Orbit Earth

# February 20, 1962: John Glenn Becomes the First American to Orbit Earth

On February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn squeezed himself into the cramped confines of Friendship 7, a Mercury spacecraft barely larger than a phone booth, and blasted off from Cape Canaveral to become the first American to orbit the Earth. This mission wasn't just a technological triumph—it was a desperately needed morale boost for a nation that felt it was losing the Space Race to the Soviet Union.

The Soviets had already shocked the world by putting Yuri Gagarin in orbit nearly a year earlier, in April 1961. The Americans had managed only suborbital flights—Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom had gone up and come right back down, like cosmic pop flies. The pressure was immense for Glenn's mission to succeed.

Glenn, a 40-year-old Marine test pilot with a crew cut and an aw-shucks demeanor that made him look like he'd stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting, was about to experience something extraordinary. After several weather-related delays that had the nation on edge, the Atlas rocket roared to life at 9:47 AM EST.

The flight was supposed to be a relatively straightforward three orbits around Earth, taking about 4 hours and 55 minutes. But it became anything but routine. During the first orbit, Glenn reported seeing what he poetically called "fireflies"—mysterious luminous particles floating outside his window. (Later missions revealed these were likely ice crystals or paint flakes illuminated by sunlight.)

Then came the real crisis: Mission Control received a signal indicating that Friendship 7's heat shield—the only thing standing between Glenn and incineration during reentry—might be loose. The landing bag, which deployed between the heat shield and the spacecraft, appeared to have come undone. If the heat shield detached during reentry through the atmosphere, Glenn would be burned alive.

The engineers made a risky decision: keep the retrorocket package attached during reentry, hoping its straps would hold the heat shield in place. Glenn, informed of the problem, remained remarkably calm—a testament to his test pilot training. As he plunged back through the atmosphere, chunks of flaming metal flew past his window. He didn't know if they were pieces of the retrorocket pack or his heat shield disintegrating.

Fortunately, the signal had been false. The heat shield was fine. Glenn splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean near Grand Turk Island, where the destroyer USS Noa picked him up.

The impact was immediate and electric. Glenn became an instant national hero. He received a ticker-tape parade in New York City attended by four million people—more than had celebrated Charles Lindbergh. President Kennedy honored him at the White House. America had proven it could compete with the Soviets in space.

Glenn's mission paved the way for the Apollo program and the eventual moon landing. It demonstrated that humans could function effectively in space, operate complex equipment in zero gravity, and survive the harrowing reentry process. His observations about eating, sleeping, and working in orbit provided crucial data for longer missions.

John Glenn would later become a senator and, at age 77, would return to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998, becoming the oldest person to fly in space—proving that his first orbital adventure was just the beginning of an extraordinary life of service and exploration.

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