posted 02-20-2022 09:04 AM               

He completed a successful three Earth-orbit mission in his Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft, reaching an altitude of 162 statute miles and an orbital speed of 17,500 mph. Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic about 800 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral near Grand Turk Island. The space voyage lasted nearly five hours from launch to landing, propelling Glenn into the history books as one of the most popular astronaut spaceflights, even to this day.

After nearly five years with NASA, Glenn resigned from the space agency in January 1964, and was promoted that same year to the rank of colonel. Two months later the astronaut hero would retire from the Marine Corps, a decorated combat pilot veteran of both World War II and Korea.

A lot of folks don't know that Glenn, a four-term U.S. Senator from Ohio, was considered one of the U.S. Senate's leading experts on technical and scientific matters, and won wide respect for his work to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

It surprised many, including myself, that Glenn would be selected to fly on a shuttle mission (STS-95) in 1998, a nine-day Discovery flight in which Glenn conducted studies on the aging process while in space. At the time, the pioneer astronaut-turned-senator was the oldest person to fly in space at 77.

A true American hero-patriot in every sense, he remained a vocal supporter of the space program and is admired as a legendary figure in American history. In 2012, President Obama awarded Glenn the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Above are two display panel presentations of Glenn's historic space feat six decades ago to this day. All of the postal covers, cards, stamps, and a MA-6 press badge were signed by Colonel/Senator Glenn and note that the second display panel focuses on the first day issue release of the new 4-cent Project Mercury stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. The stamp design featured Glenn's Mercury spacecraft in orbit that had been first released to the public after Glenn's Friendship 7 capsule had landed safely in the afternoon on Feb. 20, 1962. The postage stamp became the first U.S. manned spaceflight commemorative issue by our postal service.