50 Years Ago In Space

I have always been fascinated with the space program. I am somewhat aware that the USSR put a satellite, and then a man in space before the US did. (They even had a man walking in space before the US did.)
Right after the early Russian accomplishments, though, I followed the US space program from the early satellites through the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle programs. (This was followed by my interest in the International Space Station as well as all the exploratory launches to Mars, Venus, Saturn, Hubble, and everything in between and beyond.)
The US  was always one step behind the Russians at the beginning.

 To see how the United States began in the space program here's a look at some important milestones prior to our official man in space beginnings:

                                   

 After many false starts the US finally enters the space race with the launch of Explorer 1 on January 1, 1958. It was the first U.S. satellite to orbit around the Earth and discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belt.

NASA was formed later in the same year on October 1, 1958.

On May 28, 1959 Able, a Rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, became the first living beings to launch into suborbital flight and successfully return to earth.

On April 1, 1960 the first weather satellite, Tiros 1, was launched by the US.

I was in elementary school when the US first started with the manned missions. My father had a TV, furniture, and appliance business at that time and often brought a small black and white TV to my class to watch the space launches. BMOC......elementary school!

Original Mercury 7 astronauts
Back row: Shepard, Grissom, Cooper; front row: Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter in 1960.

I was fascinated with the Mercury program, the seven astronauts and their single occupant capsules designed to see if man could actually fly in space. Each astronaut had a spacecraft designated with separate names, all of which I could easily recite at the time. Freedom 7, Liberty Bell 7, Friendship 7, Aurora 7, Sigma 7, Faith 7...only Donald Slayton did not have a named spacecraft and did not fly in the Mercury program. He later was involved in the joint Apollo-Soyuz project. The Mercury capsules were propelled by Redstone rockets.

Launch of a Mercury capsule atop the Redstone rocket

Mercury spacecraft closeup

May 5, 1961
Alan Shepard makes a suborbital flight to become the first American in space aboard Freedom 7.

July 21, 1961
Gordon Grissom makes the second suborbital flight in Liberty Bell 7. (His spacecraft sank before recovery when the hatch unexpectedly blew off. It was recovered 1999.)

John Glenn entering the capsule for his orbital flight

Getting back to today's anniversary, it was 50 years ago today, February 20, 1962, when John Glenn became  the first American to orbit the earth to begin the series of orbital flights of NASA's Project Mercury. He made a total of three orbits of the earth circling the globe three times during a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds in his Mercury capsule, Friendship 7.

The Friendship 7 flight proved that man could endure orbital flight and safely return to earth. Later Mercury flights performed engineering tests and stayed in orbit longer.

50 years ago today. God speed, John Glenn.