On this day in space: Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes 1st American to orbit Earth

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On Feb. 20, 1962, NASA launched an astronaut into orbit around the Earth for the first time.

On Feb. 20, 1962, NASA launched an astronaut into orbit around the Earth for the first time.

two images: on the left a rocket launches above a cloud of smoke; on the right, a man in a space helmet in side a cramped cockpit full of wires

NASA astronaut John Glenn on his historic Friendship 7 spaceflight (right) and his Mercury rocket lifting off. (Image credit: NASA)

The mission lasted close to 5 hours. After a bumpy re-entry, Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles away from where it was supposed to land.

But all's well that ends well, and John Glenn went down in history as an American hero.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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