On 20 February 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. The mission was part of NASA’s Mercury human spaceflight programme and came just nine months after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.
Another significant moment came when Glenn used a camera he had purchased from a shop near the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site to snap the first-ever photograph taken by a human in space. Later photos taken by astronauts showed Earth in unprecedented new ways, and NASA quickly realised the scientific and public value of such space photography.
The Mercury programme, along with the Gemini project, were precursors to the Apollo missions that eventually landed humans on the moon. A new book celebrates this important segment of history through photographs and film stills masterfully restored by Andy Saunders from NASA’s original images.
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