First U.S. orbital manned space flight. The Mercury spacecraft completed three orbits in an 81,000 mile flight lasting four hours, 56 minutes. Due to automatic pilot difficulties, Glenn manually piloted the spacecraft on its second and third orbits. Splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean was 166 miles east of Grand Turk Island. Astronaut Glenn remained inside the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 until it was safely aboard the deck of the recovery vessel, USS Noa (DD-841). The flight provided significant aerospace medical data during 285 minutes of weightlessness. Several days later, Glenn was greeted in New York City with a ticker-tape parade attended by nearly four million people.
Launch Date: February 20, 1962, 9.47 AM EST
Launch Vehicle: Mercury-Atlas. Spacecraft unofficially named Friendship 7
