Celebration of the Flight of Friendship 7

The Celebration

The space flight of John H. Glenn, Jr. aboard Friendship 7 forty years ago on February 20, 1962 came at a time of increased Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall was built during the year prior to the launch and in the autumn of 1962 the world witnessed the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet Union had shocked the world in October 1957 when it launched the first orbital satellite, Sputnik 1 and furthered its lead in space technology when, on April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the earth. Gagarin’s single orbit was followed closely by the August 1961 record flight of Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who during twenty-four hours in space made a total of seventeen orbits around the globe.

Expectations in the United States, therefore, were high as NASA attempted to place the first American in orbit. In keeping with NASA’s policy of openness, the launch of John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 was broadcast live on television to millions of people around the world. Thousands of people gathered in spots around Cape Canaveral to witness the launch in person, while in New York City an estimated crowd of 5,000 people paused during their daily commute to view the launch on a large monitor set up in Grand Central Station. The success of the Friendship 7 space flight sent the nation into a patriotic fervor and made the mission’s astronaut an instant hero. During the two weeks following Glenn’s space flight the nation celebrated on a scale not seen since Charles Lindbergh’s solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.

Immediately after his mission Lt. Colonel Glenn flew from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Randolph to Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas for two days of debriefing and medical tests. On February 23, 1962, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson flew to the island to escort Glenn on a flight to Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. At the air force base Glenn was reunited with his family, including his mother, Clara and his father, the senior John H. Glenn. The Glenn family, accompanied by Vice President Johnson and other Mercury 7 astronauts, then proceeded by automobile to Cape Canaveral where they were scheduled to meet with President John F. Kennedy. The eighteen-mile trip between the air force base and the NASA facility turned into a parade as thousands of people from around Cocoa Beach stood along the highway to greet the returned astronaut. Later that day, at ceremonies held in Cape Canaveral, President Kennedy presented Glenn with NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal.

By invitation of President Kennedy, on February 26 the Mercury 7 astronauts and their families- with the exception of Gordon Cooper, who was in route from Australia - met with the president and vice president at a White House reception. After the event, John and Annie Glenn, riding in an open car with Vice President Johnson, led a parade through Washington, D.C. to the Capitol Building. Despite dismal rainy weather thousands of people lined the route. Upon arrival at the Capitol Building Glenn had the rare honor of giving a speech to a special joint session of Congress.

Public enthusiasm over the success of the Friendship 7 space flight was illustrated vividly in New York City when the Mercury 7 astronauts arrived there on March 1, 1962 for a ticker tape parade. An estimated four million people turned out in frigid temperatures to cheer John and Annie Glenn as they rode, again in an open automobile with Vice President Johnson, in the procession down Broadway – temporarily named Astronaut Way for the event. Thirty-five hundred tons of paper was showered along the parade route in the biggest ticker tape parade in the city’s history. The motorcade stopped shortly after noon at City Hall, where Glenn gave a brief speech to a cheering crowd. It then proceeded to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where Glenn received the city’s Medal of Honor at a luncheon held for the Mercury 7 astronauts. The following day the astronauts visited the United Nations. Glenn again gave a brief address in which he stressed, as he had in all his speeches following the space flight, the team effort required to place a man in orbit and the importance of the space program to the nation.

On the next day, March 3, 1962, John and Annie Glenn returned to their hometown of New Concord, Ohio for

their fourth parade in eight days. On another cold and blustery day 75,000 people converged on the small town of 2,100 residents in east central Ohio to get a glimpse of the local hero. After the parade Glenn gave a speech to a packed gymnasium during ceremonies held at Muskingum College, located in New Concord. As part of the ceremonies the college, John and Annie Glenn’s alma mater, named the gymnasium in honor of its famous alumnus and Glenn received the key to the city of Zanesville, Ohio, the local county seat.

After the initial outpouring of public jubilation about his space flight, Glenn returned to his work in the Mercury program. Over the course of the next two years he became something of a good will ambassador for the space agency, touring the world and meeting often with congressional leaders. The awards and tributes continued unabated. Glenn lobbied hard with NASA officials to return to space as part of the two-man or three-man crews of the Gemini and Apollo programs, but was denied all requests. Unknown to Glenn at the time, President Kennedy had judged him to be too valuable a national asset to risk in another space flight. It would not be until thirty-six years after the flight of Friendship 7 that John Glenn finally was granted his request to return to space.