When space was red...

On this day in 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, a feat that had already been accomplished by the Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.

Glenn's craft, the Friendship 7, was pushed into space on a Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle and just under 5 hours later re-entered the Earth's atmosphere to splash down in the Atlantic.

This flight marked a significant step in a bitter space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

And the Ruskies were killin' us...