Leaving the crew quarters at Hangar S at Cape Canaveral on February, 20 1962 John Glenn in full pressure silver space suit is on his way to board the Friendship 7 capsule mated to the Atlas rocket at Launch Complex 14 just prior to becoming the first American in orbit. John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission truly marked the beginning of NASA’s ventures into space, 10 months after the first human orbital spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 (12 April 1961). Following the trail blazed by Gagarin, John Glenn rode an Atlas booster into Earth orbit. His success was a blaze of glory for the American public, whose adulation approached that given to Charles Lindbergh following his solo transatlantic flight in 1927. (Chaikin, Space, p. 29 and p. 43).