It was a 'very elated pilot' who saw his great parachute deploy to carry him to a safe landing. Gherman Titov circled the earth 17 times in 24 hours. Yuri Gagarin on a single global circuit and more than six months after Soviet Maj. This was the eleventh time the national space agency had sought to rocket Glenn off in the attempt to achieve manned orbit for this nation, 10 months after Russia had successfully flown Maj. So he 'flew by wire' for the last two, meaning that he manually operated electronic controls governing the jets.Ī gremlin-like rash of minor mechanical breakdowns briefly threatening the flight before launching. The Mercury's 'attitude,' or relation to the horizon, is governed by gas jets which Glenn found were yawing the space craft as much as 20 degrees out of position under automatic pilot, during the first orbit. Glenn dropped the package later after his craft had slowed to landing speed.Īs it turned out, the instrument reporting the weakening of the heat shields fastening was faulty and this precaution had not been necessary. Holding the package secured the heat shield. 'I'm going to sit back and let somebody else do the flying this trip,' Glenn remarked as he left the Randolph by Navy plane.Īs a precautionary measure, Glenn was advised not to release the package containing his retrorockets after firing the rockets to slow the Mercury for a landing.

Then he was flown to Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas, where he will spend the next two days undergoing intensive 'debriefing' before returning here, where he will be greeted by President Kennedy. where he had a filet mignon dinner and further medical checks. Glenn was transferred by helicopters to the aircraft carrier Randolph at 5:55 P.M.

He asked for a glass of iced tea repeated that he was in 'excellent' condition, then went below to take a shower and change his space togs for a light flying suit before his first session with doctors on board the destroyer. 'It was hot in there,' Glenn said as he reached the destroyer's deck. 'Noa's men welcome you,' said a big sign on the deck of the destroyer named in the honor of Midshipman Loveman Noa, who was killed in ambush by Philippine rebels in 1901 at the age of 23.

First man to orbit the earth