Fifty years ago today, millions around the world watched as 41-year-old astronaut John Glenn became the first American in space. Glenn, aboard his spacecraft Friendship 7, orbited the Earth three times and logged 4 hours and 48 minutes in space. It was the first flight of the Mercury space program that laid the groundwork for the Gemini program.
It was the first of many feats for the NASA space program leading up the July 20, 1969 moon landing.
More about the Mercury program
The Mercury program included 20 unmanned flights with two suborbital and four orbital flights with astronauts. The first unmanned space flight came on May 5, 1961. Two years later, Gordon Cooper became the first American to spend one day in space and completed 22 orbits of the Earth. Cooper was also the last astronaut to fly in space solo. It was also the last flight of the Mercury program.
I broke the cardinal sin of headlines–I put a slammer on! Aw, who cares. This morning I tweeted that I would laugh when Phil isn’t right and that the law averages will inevitably mean that the fabled groundhog will eventually be wrong.
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