On February 20, 1962, NASA launched an astronaut into orbit around the Earth for the first time.
John Glenn was the third American to launch into space and the third human to orbit Earth. Two Soviet cosmonauts had orbited Earth before him. He blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a Mercury spacecraft named Friendship 7 and circled the Earth three times. The mission lasted close to five hours. After a bumpy reentry, Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles away from where it was supposed to land. But all is well that ends well, and John Glenn went down in history as an American hero.
John Glenn was the third American to launch into space and the third human to orbit Earth. Two Soviet cosmonauts had orbited Earth before him. He blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a Mercury spacecraft named Friendship 7 and circled the Earth three times. The mission lasted close to five hours. After a bumpy reentry, Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles away from where it was supposed to land. But all is well that ends well, and John Glenn went down in history as an American hero.
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00:00On this day in space.
00:04On February 20th, 1962, NASA launched an astronaut into orbit around the Earth
00:08for the first time. John Glenn was the third American to launch into space
00:12and the third human to orbit Earth. Two Soviet cosmonauts had orbited
00:16Earth before him. He blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a Mercury spacecraft
00:20named Friendship 7 and circled the Earth three times. The mission lasted
00:24close to five hours. After a bumpy re-entry, Friendship 7
00:28splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles away from where it was supposed to land.
00:32But all is well that ends well, and John Glenn went down in history as an American hero.
00:36And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology