John Glenn made America's first manned Earth-orbital spaceflight on February 20, 1962, making three orbits in his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. He also became the first human being to take photographs from space using a hand-held 35mm Ansco Autoset camera and Eastman Color Negative Film 5250 that he bought in a drug store in Cocoa Beach, just outside of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

This photograph was taken by NASA’s first senior photographer Bill Taub at Cape Canaveral, Florida, during MA-6 preflight training activities. Glenn is standing in front of a Project Mercury tracking antenna and wearing a Mercury pressure suit designed to protect him during his three-orbital flight around the Earth.