First orbit of the earth

On February 20, 1962 (44 years ago today) John H. Glenn, Jr. became the first man to orbit the earth. Want to read the in-flight communication between Glenn and Mission Control in Florida? The National Archives has digitized this document at the Our Documents web site, which contains 100 milestone documents in American history. If you want to learn more about the early space program, check out Mercury: America's First Space Program on the NASA web site.