Credit: NASA/Michael Lawrence Films
Scott Carpenter, backup pilot &
capsule communicator
1962 orbital flight
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NASA movie of John Glen’s orbital flight, 20 February 1962
/ John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016 American aviator engineer astronaut United States Senator Ohio 1962 first American to orbit the earth circling three times NASA distinguished fighter pilot World War II Korea five Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters Mercury Seven group military test pilots selected 1959 NASA America's first astronauts February 20 1962 flew Friendship 7 mission first American to orbit the Earth fifth person in space Congressional Space Medal of Honor Honour in 1978 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame last surviving member of the Mercury Seven /