Which NASA mission carried John Glenn on the first American orbital spaceflight in 1962?

NASA’s Mercury-Atlas 6 carried John Glenn on the first American orbital spaceflight on February 20, 1962.

Glenn launched aboard the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. He completed three orbits of Earth during a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. The mission made Glenn the first American to orbit Earth, following Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight in 1961.

Mercury-Atlas 6 was the sixth crewed American Mercury mission, but earlier crewed Mercury flights had used suborbital trajectories. The Atlas rocket was powerful enough to place Glenn’s spacecraft into orbit, making this a major step in the United States’ human spaceflight program.

A worrying heat-shield and control-system indication appeared during the flight, but Glenn landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Friendship 7 is the spacecraft name, while Mercury-Atlas 6 is the mission designation.