''On 20 February 1962, Colonel Glenn in his Mercury craft was rocketed into space by a modified Atlas missile from Cape Canaveral (later re-named Cape Kennedy), Florida, at 9:47a.m. (EST) and landed in the Atlantic Ocean, 166 miles east of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas, at 2:43 p.m. During the second and third orbits, he controlled the capsule himself through the autopilot after the automatic controls broke down just at the end of the first orbit. During his 83,000-mile ride through space, he had achieved an orbital speed of 17,530 miles an hour at a high point of 162.5 statute miles and a low point of 98.9 statue miles.''

''Following re-entry, Colonel Glenn landed with his spacecraft in the Atlantic, five miles from the United States Navy Destroyer Noa. He was picked up still inside his spacecraft and lowered to the deck of the destroyer at 3:04 p.m. Later, he was lifted from the Noa by helicopter and transferred to the carrier Randolph for transport to Grand Turk Island for examination by a team of doctors and technicians, and was pronounced in excellent condition.''

''The late President John F. Kennedy presented Colonel Glenn the NASA Distinguished Service Medal at Cape Canaveral on 23 February 1962. On the previous day, Lyndon B. Johnson, then Vice President of the United States, and Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, had flown to Grand Turk Island to escort Colonel Glenn to Cape Canaveral. On 26 February, Colonel Glenn returned to Washington, D.C., with President Kennedy, and after a parade from the White House to Capitol Hill, the colonel and his fellow astronauts were honored at a joint meeting of Congress. On 1 March, he and his fellow astronauts were honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.''

''In the summer of 1962, Colonel Glenn moved with his fellow astronauts to the newly established Manned Space Craft Center in Houston, Texas.''