Astronomy: Mercury spacecrafts

The flights of the Mercury spacecrafts were conducted from 1961 until 1963, Mercury 3 until 9 all were manned space flights, except for Mercury 5. John Glenn was the first American ever to orbit Earth with the Mercury 6. On 12 April 1961, almost one year earlier, the former Soviet Union had done the same with Joeri Gagarin in the Wostock spacecraft. All manned Mercury missions: Mercury MR-3: manned by Alan Shepard, launched into space and returned to Earth, both on 5 May 1961 Mercury MR-4: manned by Virgil Grissom, launched into space and returned to Earth, both on 21 July 1961 Mercury MR-6: manned by John Glenn, launched into space, orbited 3 times around Earth and returned, all on 20 February 1962 Mercury MR-7: manned by Scott Carpenter, launched into space, orbited 3 times around Earth and returned, all on 24 May 1962 Mercury MR-8: manned by Wally Schirra, launched into space, orbited 6 times around Earth and returned, all on 3 September 1962 Mercury MR-9: manned by Gordon Cooper, launched into space on 15 May 1963, orbited Earth for 34 hours and returned on 17 May 1963

20 February 1962, John Glenn manning the Mercury is launched with an Atlas rocket.

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