Video

Video by Lance Cpl. Morgan Burgess

The Final Frontier

Communication Directorate

Feb. 20, 2020 | 0:24

On. Feb 20, 1962, LtCol John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth. After three years of training, the Marine rocketed into space aboard the Mercury capsule Friendship 7. The historical flight was no easy feat. At the end of his first orbit, a yaw attitude jet clogged, forcing Glenn to abandon the automatic control system and use the manual electrical fly-by-wire system.

In 4 hours and 56 minutes, Glenn circled the globe three times, reaching speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour. The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.

For a descriptive transcript text document of this production, contact Kim Hardison at kimberly.hardison@usmc.mil.