First American Orbit of Earth
On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth aboard his Friendship 7 capsule.
Born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, John Glenn was enrolled in college when World War II began. Because he had earned his private pilot’s license, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He wasn’t called up quickly, so he joined the Navy in March 1942. He was reassigned to the Marines in 1943 and flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific.
Glenn continued to defend our country during the Korean War. He flew 63 missions and returned to his base twice with more than 250 enemy anti-aircraft bullet holes in his plane.
Flying was a passion for Glenn and during peacetime he was appointed to test pilot school. He completed the first coast-to-coast supersonic flight on July 16, 1957. Glenn received his fifth Distinguished Flying Cross for the successful mission, named “Project Bullet.” Less than two years later, Glenn would start training for another historic flight.
In April 1959, seven men were chosen to take part in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Project Mercury, and John Glenn was one of them. He was selected for the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission to become the first American to orbit the Earth. On February 20, 1962, Glenn climbed into the Friendship 7 spacecraft and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. He broke through Earth’s atmosphere and circled the globe for four hours, 55 minutes. Glenn made three orbits before a heating problem forced an early landing. Upon his return Astronaut Glenn was a national hero, with his own ticker-tape parade and a service medal awarded by President Kennedy.
Glenn must have thought his space flight days were over when he resigned from NASA shortly after his friend John Kennedy was assassinated. The former astronaut began his political career in 1974, when he was elected to represent his home state of Ohio in the U.S. Senate. When most people are slowing down and enjoying their twilight years, Glenn was asked to return to space. On October 29, 1998, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off with Glenn aboard. At age 77, Glenn became the oldest person to go into space. When he returned to earth, another ticker-tape parade was held in his honor.
Issuing a Top Secret Stamp
In the early 1960s, the Post Office started using a Giori Printing Press, which allowed it to produce stamps in two or three colors in a single run (instead of having to send the stamps through for each color). In the summer of 1961, the Post Office Department began a special project. The new Giori Press was locked in a separate room accessed only by a small number of postal employees and with a guard to keep others out. Rumors in the Department speculated that it was being used to make currency. Instead, it was printing the “Project Mercury” stamp.
The stamp was sent in sealed packets to postmasters in 305 locations around the country, with specific instructions: “Classified Material. Do Not Open.” The packets were shipped in time for the original launch date – December 21, 1961. Weather caused delays until the end of February.
The February 20 launch was at 9:48 a.m. local time in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and splashed down at 2:43 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., the post offices were informed by telephone, Teletype, and telegraph, that they could open the packet and distribute the stamps. If there had been a failure, the stamps would not have been released.
One side effect of the late release was that it gave very limited time to get First Day Covers serviced – an hour and a half, in Eastern states. Cape Canaveral is listed as the official site of the First Day of Issue. There was no Cape Canaveral Post Office until 3:30 p.m., February 20, 1962. That’s when a U.S. Air Force van was made into a temporary post office and called a substation of the Cocoa, Florida, Post Office.
Click here to watch video of the Friendship 7 launch plus photos and audio from the orbit.
Click here to see what else happened on This Day in History.
Most interesting that these were kept in reserve until a successful mission was accomplished.
A true American hero…
Godspeed John Glenn!!!!
I remember it well, they took us all out of our grade school classrooms to an auditorium where they had a TV set up at the front of the room so we could all watch this historic event in living black & white!
Did not know the history of the Project Mercury stamp. Fascinating.
If memory serves me correctly, Senator Glenn was the instigator of his return to space, not asked.
Another very informative article, I especially appreciate the tie in story of the stamp issue, very interesting and very fun. Keep up the good work!
Interesting info on Glenn’s first U.S. orbital flight. His flight was cut short by a Heat Shield problem rather than a ‘heating’ problem in the article. There was an indicator there may have been a problem. After firing the retro rockets to slow his speed for reentry, flight control had him leave the retro rocket pack in place, rather than releasing it, which was normal. They felt that would help keep the heat shield in place.
U.S. manned orbital flight was delayed for a seemingly strange reason. USSR was using ballistic missiles for manned flight as was the U.S. (The Redstone, Atlas, and Titan rockets used were originally designed for ballistic use) but those used by the USSR were more powerful at the time. The U.S. was a long way ahead in the miniaturization of atomic weapons, and so our rockets were not originally designed for as heavy lifting. The Saturn rocket was the first designed with manned flight as its main use. Can only imagine the first astronauts feelings sitting on top of those things. And their standard response to the Mercury capsule was that they didn’t fly it, they wore it. Congrats to John Glenn.
He was something special is all I can say. His bravery is unmatched.
A recently released Movie “Hidden Figures” relates to the back ground on John Glenn’s trip into space and what NASA went through in figuring out the math. A very good movie. Definitely talks about history in a way that you and I had not heard of.
A good article but not complete or accurate. The Frendship 7 mission was supposed to be for 7 orbits. The heat shield problem described above caused that to be shortened. Although Glenn and the other astronauts met President Kennedy they certainly were not what you could call personal friends. Glenn was the oldest of the Mercury astronauts. When the next group of astronauts were chosen he was basically relegated to training and advising the younger men. Space travel at that time was extremely dangerous. Liquid fuels were highly volatile. NASA did not want to risk losing the true American hero John Glenn to catastrophy. Glenn was asked to retire from the Marine Corps and run for political office since he was so famous and popular. He continued ure serving our nation for several more years as a distinguished US Senator.