Friendship 7 At Fifty

Fifty years ago today, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, completing three orbits in a five-hour mission aboard his Mercury capsule, which he named the Friendship 7.

The flight made Glenn one of the most famous Americans alive, and he was able to parlay that fame into a highly successful political career, but it could have gone quite differently. During the flight, there were indications that the heat shield of the capsule was loose. Had it fallen off, Glenn would have burned up during re-entry. NASA wasn't sure the heat shield would work until Glenn was safely on his way to splashdown, having survived the critical period while plasma surrounding his capsule blocked radio contact with the ground.