February 20: On This Day in World History … briefly
On February 20, 1962, US Marine Corps pilot John Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit Earth and the fifth person and third American in space.
1962: Glenn takes a few spins around the world
Astronaut John Hershell Glenn Jr circled the Earth three times in under five hours to become the first American to orbit the planet.
After 10 postponements because of inclement weather, the US Marine Corps pilot’s flight aboard the tiny Friendship-7 capsule went without a hitch from blast-off at Cape Canaveral to splashdown in the Atlantic near Puerto Rico.
During the flight a warning light at mission control indicated the capsule’s vital heat-shield was loose, but re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere went smoothly.
This was the third manned flight in the Mercury programme, but the US still lagged behind the USSR in the space race – Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in April 1961.
Glenn, who was a pilot in WWI and the Korean War, remarked that ‘he felt excellent’ after the flight.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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