On the morning of February 20, 1962, a 29-meter (95-foot) Mercury Atlas launch vehicle rose from Cape Canaveral carrying John H. Glenn, Jr., in his Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7. This was the lift-off for the first U.S.-manned orbital space flight.

In slightly more than 5 minutes the Atlas accelerated Friendship 7 to its orbital velocity of 28,230 kilometers per hour (17,540 miles per hour). Astronaut Glenn completed three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes. From the orbital path, which varied between 160 and 260 kilometers (100 and 160 miles) above Earth, the first American in orbit described the four sunsets he saw and reported that he was able to distinguish a ship’s wake on the ocean below.

Mercury spacecraft had been used in two previous manned suborbital flights which proved that it was a safe vehicle for manned space flights. Later orbital Mercury missions demonstrated that man could live and work in space. Friendship 7’s flight tested the performance of the pilot in weightless conditions and the interaction of the human pilot with the various automatic systems in the spacecraft.

Friendship 7 reentered the earth’s atmosphere and splashed into the Atlantic Ocean only 64 kilometers (40 miles) from the planned site. Glenn and Friendship 7 were recovered by the U.S.S. Noa near Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas.

The Mercury spacecraft consists of a conical pressure section topped by a cylindrical recovery-system section.

During flight, the Mercury spacecraft was equipped with three 454-kilogram (1000-pound) thrust solid-propellant retro-rockets mounted in a package on the heat shield. After the three rockets were fired to slow the spacecraft, the retro-rocket package was jettisoned.

Prime contractor for Friendship 7 was McDonnell Aircraft Company.

Friendship 7 is from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.