47. [Mercury Atlas 6] THE LAUNCH OF THE FIRST AMERICAN IN ORBIT: John Glenn boarding Friendship 7 NASA, 20 February 1962 Printed 1962. Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper. With NASA caption numbered "62-MA6-108" and dated "February 20, 1962" on the reverse (issued by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context This superb photograph, taken by NASA's first senior photographer Bill Taub on February 20, 1962, shows John Glenn in his silver pressure suit boarding the Friendship 7 capsule to become the first American to orbit Earth. The image captures the tension before this crucial milestone in NASA's space exploration efforts. The Friendship 7 mission achieved orbit just 10 months after Yuri Gagarin's groundbreaking flight aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Glenn's success ignited a blaze of national pride and public admiration, rivalling the adulation once given to Charles Lindbergh following his 1927 solo transatlantic flight. "They started to put the hatch on. This is the moment when things begin to come home to you. Up to this point people are reaching into the capsule and working all around you and there's no real feeling of being on your own. Suddenly, as people begin to pat you on the shoulder, wink at you, shake your hand and wave goodbye, it changes." John Glenn (Kelley, plate 2)