Friendship Seven (1962)

The film details the historic launch of Astronaut John Glenn aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on February 20, 1962. It describes the meticulous countdown process at Cape Canaveral, the roles of the launch team and flight controllers, and Glenn’s extensive training and experience. As Glenn orbits the Earth, the transcript captures his communications with ground control, the challenges faced, including a potential heat shield malfunction, and the successful re-entry and recovery of the spacecraft. This mission marked a significant milestone in human space exploration.

Keywords
John Glenn, Friendship 7, launch, Cape Canaveral, countdown, Mercury program, space exploration, telemetry, re-entry, recovery, historic mission, astronaut, NASA.

We digitized and uploaded this film from the A/V Geeks 16mm Archive. Email us at footage@avgeeks.com if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project.