On a mission less than five hours long, American astronaut John Glenn's three Earth orbits totaled about 81,000 total miles.
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On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth — completing three circuits in his Friendship 7 capsule launched atop a Mercury-Atlas rocket at 9:47 a.m. from Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — as part of the Mercury program. The flight, which lasted 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds, immediately put the United States on equal footing with the former Soviet Union in a Cold War "Space Race" and ignited celebrations around the Free World. It made Glenn such a hero, such a symbol, such an asset in President John F. Kennedy’s opinion that he was deemed too valuable to fly again, instead becoming a symbol of America’s space success.
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