The first American to orbit the earth

An engineer and astronaut from Ohio has become the first American to ever orbit the earth.

At the age of 41, John Glenn earned the title of the first American ever orbit Planet Earth. He become the third person to succeed in such a mission when he orbited the Earth in 1962.

John Glenn's mission began on 20th February of that year, when he started his space flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida. His spacecraft, which was called Friendship 7, circled the Earth for three times in 4 hours and 55 minutes at a speed of 281, 627.5 kilometres per hour.

From his time in space, he realised and said that "The sky in space is very black, with a thin band of blue along the horizon."