John Glenn boards Friendship 7, 1962. John Glenn boards the command module of the Friendship 7 spacecraft, on the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. This was the third human spaceflight for the U.S. and launched on 20 February 1962. Glenn (born 1921) piloted the mission and was the first American to go into Earth orbit. He performed three orbits of the Earth and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. He went on to become the United States Senator for Ohio.