First American in Space, February 20, 1962, by Anonymous
From MemoryArchive
Who: Anonymous What: First American in Space When: February 20, 1962 Where: Pittsburgh, PA
On February 20, 1962 I was a 9th grader in my last year of junior high school or first year of high school. I remember this day extremely well because all of the students in Ingomar Middle School, which is located in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, were ushered into the school auditorium. We watched a very small television set onstage and listened on the radio to the launch of the first American into space. John Glenn, in Friendship 7, was the first American human to have an orbited flight. The United States had worked frantically to reach this point since the Soviets, as the Russians were then known, launched Sputnik in 1957. We (United States) were told that we were in a race or competition with the Russians to explore space. So February 20, 1962 was an important day in the history of NASA and the American space program.
