Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Series)

On February 20, 1962, astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. , became the first American to orbit Earth. He made three trips around the world in Friendship 7, a small spacecraft weighing barely more than a ton and a half, which had been hurled into orbit by an Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Glenn was the fifth person in space, following two Soviet cosmonauts who had orbited and two American astronauts who had made suborbital trips of fifteen minutes. Because he was the first to match the Soviet achievement of orbiting, his fame in the United States quickly eclipsed even that of the first American in space, Alan B. Shepard. As a result, Friendship 7 was chosen for the Milestones of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum when it was opened in 1976—not Shepard’s Freedom 7.

• Manufacturer: McDonnell Aircraft, St. Louis
• Length (at nasm): 9 ft. 4 in. (2.84m)
• Length (with Escape Tower): 26 ft. (7.90m)
• Length (In orbIt): 11 ft. 4 in. (3.45m)
• Diameter (At Base): 6 ft. 2 in. (1.88m)
• Weight (Current): 2,987 lbs. (1,358 kg)