One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
28 October 2022
One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
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The first American in orbit on launch day: John Glenn prior to boarding Friendship 7 for the historic first US orbital mission, NASA [Mercury Atlas 6], 20 February 1962

printed 1962
vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper 8 h × 10 w in (20 × 25 cm)
estimate: $700–1,000
result: $250
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John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission on the 20th of February 1962, truly marked the beginning of NASA’s ventures into space, 10 months after the first human orbital spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 (12 April 1961).
Numbered to verso '62-MA6-104' with NASA caption.

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On 20 February 1962, John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission truly marked the beginning of NASA’s ventures into space, 10 months after the first human orbital spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 (12 April 1961).

Following the trail blazed by Gagarin, John Glenn rode an Atlas booster into Earth orbit. His success was a blaze of glory for the American public, whose adulation approached that given to Charles Lindbergh following his solo transatlantic flight in 1927. (Chaikin, Space, pg. 29, 43)

The photograph shows John Glenn in full pressure space suit inside the van transporting him to Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 14. He is studying an orbital map of the Earth for the last time prior to boarding Friendship 7 to become the first American in orbit.

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