Astronaut John Glenn, Jr. enters into the spacecraft Friendship 7 prior to MA-6 launch operations at Launch Complex 14. Astronaut Glenn is entering his spacecraft to begin the first American manned Earth orbital mission.
Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., pilot of the Mercury Atlas 6 space mission, poses in his pressure suit and helmet for press photographers at Cape Canaveral during MA-6 pre-flight activities.
The Project Mercury Astronauts, whose selection was announced on April 9, 1959, only six months after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formally established on October 1, 1958, are seen in this photo. They are: (front row, l. to r) Walter H. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. Gus Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper.
Astronaut John Glenn looks into a Celestial Training Device (globe) during training in the Aeromedical Laboratory at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1961.
Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., NASA flight surgeon William Douglas and equipment specialist Joseph W. Schmidt leave crew quarters prior to the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. Glenn is in his pressure suit and is carrying the portable ventilation unit.
Astronaut John Glenn gives ready sign during Mercury-Atlas 6 pre-launch training activities.
Astronauts participate in tropical survival training at Albrook Air Force Base near the Panama Canal. From left to right are an unidentified trainer, Neil Armstrong, John H. Glenn, Jr., L. Gordon Cooper, and Pete Conrad. Survival training was, and still is, an important exercise for astronauts, as a launch abort or misguided reentry could potentially land them in a remote wilderness area.
The Original Mercury Seven astronauts are seen with a U.S. Air Force F-106B jet aircraft. From left to right: M. Scott Carpenter, Leroy Gordon Cooper, John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I. Gus Grissom, Jr., Walter M. Wally Schirra, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Donald K. Deke Slayton.
Grouped together with astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., beside the 'Friendship 7' spacecraft are left to right: T.J. O'Malley, chief test conductor for General Dynamics; Glenn; and Paul Donnelly.
President John F. Kennedy (l.), John Glenn, and General Leighton I. Davis ride together during a parade in Cocoa Beach, Florida after Glenn's historic first US human orbital spacefight.
A weightless applesauce tube floats free following a snack by astronaut John Glenn in the course of his first orbit during the Mercury 'Friendship 7' mission on February 20, 1962.
STS-95 crewmember, astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn is seen in 1998. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth and returned to space in the late 90s aboard a Space Shuttle flight.
STS-95 Payload Specialist John Glenn positions himself to take photos from the Discovery's aft flight deck windows on Flight Day 3, Halloween 1998.
Ohio Senator John Glenn (l.) enjoys a tour of the flight deck in the orbiter Columbia with Astronaut Stephen Oswald at the Orbiter Processing Facility 3 at Kennedy Space Center.
Syria's raging civil war has seen neighbors flooded with refugees. Egypt has become the latest regional country to take steps to limit refugee access.
Nearly a third of Syria's 21 million people are now a refugee or displaced within their own country. That staggering number has begun to overwhelm neighboring countries and international organizations say some states are beginning to severely restrict the inflow of Syrians fleeing the conflict.
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