WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

President John F. Kennedy is briefed on the operation of Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral following the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) flight. This was President Kennedy's first visit to Cape Canaveral. MA-6 astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. (partially obscured) piloted the Mercury "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the United States' first human orbital flight. In the center (on Glenn's left) is Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., MA-6 flight director and Chief of Flight Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). The MA-6 flight was on February 20, 1962. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (right), pilot of the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) mission, made the United States' first manned space flight on May 5, 1961.