Col. Glenn reported "hale and hearty"
Picked up in Atlantic
Colonel John Glenn, the first United States astronaut to have circled the earth, was picked up safely from the Atlantic last night by the destroyer Noa, about 200 miles north-west of Puerto Rico. He had completed three orbits.
While still inside the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 on the destroyer's desk, the astronaut, who had sent out remarkable calm, even cheerful and joking reports throughout his flight of nearly five hours, gave his final radio message: "My condition is excellent." An official spokesman said he blew out the escape hatch and emerged "a hale and hearty astronaut."
President Kennedy immediately expressed the great happiness and thanksgiving of all Americans on the success of the flight, which had started from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the Friendship 7 was lifted into orbit by a huge Atlas rocket. Messages of congratulations were sent to President Kennedy by the Queen and by Mr Macmillan.
Washington visit planned
Mr Kennedy, who told Colonel Glenn over the radiotelephone yesterday: "We are really proud of you," is to go to Cape Canaveral on Friday to congratulate him in person, and the astronaut is to go to Washington on Monday or Tuesday for a visit to the White House, a parade through the streets, and a Congressional reception. Last night in New York the ticker tape celebrations were on a scale never seen since the end of the war.
Although Colonel Glenn's trip was brief compared with the Russian Gherman Titov's 17-orbit flight in August, the American was said to have flown his capsule "like a test pilot" whereas the Soviet Vostok 2 was controlled from the ground for almost the whole of its journey. Friendship 7 had to be controlled manually for more than two-thirds of the way because the automatic pilot system became erratic.
The launching delayed
The launching took place at 2.47 p.m., after several delays because of mechanical faults, and the capsule was circling the globe at 17,547 mph, making an orbit in about 89 minutes.
At 7.28 p.m. four hours 41 minutes after leaving the launching pad, Colonel Glenn had completed the three orbits. Ten minutes later his spacecraft's 63-ft main parachute opened at 21,900ft and dropped the capsule into the sea. Recovery forces sighted it at 7.40 p.m. and it was on board the destroyer 20 minutes later.
On the last orbit Colonel Glenn fired his retro-rockets over the US to bring the capsule down. It fell in a long sliding arc over the Florida coast and the astronaut was heard shouting: "Boy, that was a real fireball" - a reference to the heat caused by atmospheric friction.
