Starship Asterisk*

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn launched on the Friendship 7 flight, or Mercury 6, the first human orbital flight for NASA. Last night NASA premiered a video to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the flight, and have now made it available to share.

Glenn launched at 9:47:39 am EST from Cape Canaveral, orbiting Earth three times, with his flight lasting 88 minutes and 29 seconds. In total he flew 121,793 km (75,679 miles) reaching a speed of 28,234 km/h (17,544 mph.)

Why was his flight named Mercury 6, and why the nickname of Friendship 7?

To clarify the numbering system, Mercury 1 was unmanned and failed, but Mercury 1A, also unmanned was a success, followed by a successful Mercury 2 with Ham the chimpanzee on board, who survived the flight. Mercury 3 and Mercury 4 were the first manned suborbital flights for the US, and were successful. Mercury 5 was another chimpanzee flight, this time with Enos making the flight in the first use of the Atlas rocket for the Mercury program.

For the Friendship 7 nickname, the 7 represented the seven original Mercury astronauts. As for the name friendship, here’s what John Glenn said in his memoir:

• “I set about naming the capsule. Al’s (Shepard) Freedom 7 had struck the right note. Gus (Grissom) in Liberty Bell 7, had been inspired by both patriotism and the capsule’s shape. I had several ideas, but I was trying very hard to keep Dave and Lyn (his children) involved and make them feel a part of my mission. I asked them if they would be willing to think about some names. I said, ‘There’s only one ground rule. The world is going to be watching, so the name should represent our country and the way we feel about the rest of the world.’ They pored over a thesaurus and wrote dozens of names in a notebook. Then they worked them down to several possibilities, names and words including; Columbia, Endeavour, America, Magellan, we, hope, harmony, and kindness. At the top of the list was their first choice: Friendship. I was so proud of them. They had chosen perfectly.”…
  
  From: John Glenn: A Memoir, by John H. Glenn Jr.

Beyond wrote:Gee, now i feel . I was halfway through a 4-year course at a technical training school.(instead of highschool)

orin stepanek wrote:
Is that red duct tape around the window of the Friendship 7?

geckzilla wrote:

Beyond wrote:Gee, now i feel . I was halfway through a 4-year course at a technical training school.(instead of highschool)

I wasn't born for another 21 years.

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Fifty years ago, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He also was one of the first humans to study the planet from space.

Just 5 minutes and 44 seconds after launch, Glenn offered his first words about the view from his porthole: “This is Friendship 7. Can see clear back; a big cloud pattern way back across towards the Cape. Beautiful sight.”

Three hours later, at the beginning of his third orbit, Glenn photographed this panoramic view of Florida from the Georgia border (right, under clouds) to just north of Cape Canaveral. His American homeland was 162 miles (260 kilometers) below. “I have the Cape in sight down there,” he noted to mission controllers. “It looks real fine from up here. I can see the whole state of Florida just laid out like on a map. Beautiful.”

Glenn rocketed into space atop an Atlas rocket in a spacecraft dubbed Friendship 7. He reached a speed of 17,500 miles per hour as he made three orbits and traveled 75,679 miles in just under five hours. Along the way, he saw a dust storm and fires in Africa. He observed the glow of moonlight on the cloud tops and the ocean. He saw the wake of a ship and the different colored waters of the Gulf Stream. He saw a “brilliant blue band” on the horizon—the thin, fragile atmosphere of Earth.

In his official report written after the mission, he offered some highlights:

• It was surprising how much of the earth's surface was covered by clouds...The different types of clouds—vertical developments, stratus clouds, and cumulus clouds—are readily distinguished...Only a few land areas were visible during the flight because of the cloud cover...
  
  As I came across the United States, I could see New Orleans, Charleston, and Savannah very clearly. I could also see rivers and lakes. I think the best view I had of any land area during the flight was the clear desert region around El Paso on the second pass across the United States. I could see the colors of the desert and the irrigated area north of El Paso.
  
  Just off the east coast of Africa were two large storm areas. Weather Bureau scientists had wondered whether lightning could be seen on the night side, and it certainly can...Lightning could be seen flashing back and forth between the clouds, but most prominent were lightning flashes within thunderheads, illuminating them like light bulbs.

After splashing back down in the Atlantic Ocean near Grand Turk Island, Glenn described his flight with understated eloquence: “It was quite a day. I'm not sure what you can say about a day in which you see four beautiful sunsets in one day, but it's pretty interesting.”