Most people know the first man to set foot on the moon, but do you know the first American to orbit the Earth? That man was John Glenn. John Glenn was a very important and significant man within the NASA program , “Project Mercury”. Glenn had many great accomplishments in his lifetime and played a crucial role in the advancement of american space exploration.
John Glenn was born on July 18,1921 in Cambridge Ohio. Glenn had a fairly average early life. His family then moved to New Concord , OH, where his father was managing a plumbing business. He had a strong interest in science especially aeronautics while being an adolescent. Years later John attended Muskington College, majoring in a degree of engineering.After graduating he joined the Naval Aviation Cadet Program
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During his service in World War ll Glenn completed 59 combat missions. When the war ended he joined multiple squadrons all over the world, such as the Marine Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol. Glenn rejoined the fight when the Korean War came about. 63 combat missions were completed by Glenn while being with the Marine Fighter Squadron 311. One of the most unique performances of John Glenn was breaking the transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles California, to New York. Making him the first human to average super sonic speed during a transcontinental flight. After his time in the army, Glenn was selected to participate in NASA’s Project Mercury. He was set to be the backup pilot for Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom. After 3 years , it was finally Glenn’s turn to venture into the “deep dark space”. On February 1962 , the Friendship 7 space shuttle launched with John Glenn in the pilot cabin. Yet it didn’t go as well as you would expect. During a test in manual systems, the automatic systems of the shuttle shut down. This left Glenn to pilot the shuttle by himself. Luckily due to Glenn’s experience and training the problem was resolved. Another