CIRCA 1961

Hand-painted wood and metal model, on later custom base.

Nearly six foot tall vintage NASA model of the first manned American spacecraft to orbit the Earth.

Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to achieve orbital space flight on 20 February 1962. His spacecraft, the Friendship 7, was launched atop an Atlas rocket and orbited the Earth three times before splashing down in the North Atlantic. The original capsule was toured around the world in 1962 and is currently on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.

This large model is meticulously constructed, the Friendship 7 capsule itself is hand-painted with its logo, "United States" and an American flag and good detail of the retro-rockets on the heat shield. It is surmounted by a red-painted metal escape tower, the original of which would have been jettisoned a couple of minutes after lift-off.
80³⁄₄ x 17 in. (105 x 43cm), including base

Anonymous sale; Profiles in History, Los Angeles, 28 July 2006, lot 547 ("this model hung in NASA for thirty years until it was given to a retiring colonel in the 1990s").
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.