Astronaut John Glenn enters the Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7, prior to the launch of Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) on Feb. 20, 1962. The MA-6 mission was the first crewed orbital flight and Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit, five-hour MA-6 mission. Image Credit: NASA 1962年2月20日，在水星阿特拉斯6号（MA-6）发射之前，宇航员约翰·格伦进入水星飞船友谊7号。MA-6任务是第一次载人轨道飞行，格伦成为第一个在MA-6任务期间绕地球三圈飞行的美国人。 影像来源：NASA
On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. The mission? Send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. The pilot of this historic flight, John Glenn, became a national hero and a symbol of American ambition. NASA’s Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility, or Gimbal Rig, was one of the many facilities where Glenn trained for their missions. After three years of training, Glenn rocketed into space aboard the Mercury capsule Friendship 7. He became the third American in space and the first to orbit Earth. The historical flight was no easy feat. At the end of his first orbit, a yaw attitude jet clogged, forcing Glenn to abandon the automatic control…
