The suborbital missions of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom prepared the way for the first orbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to circle the Earth making three orbits in his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. He also became the first human being to photograph Earth from space using a hand-held 35mm Ansco Autoset camera and Eastman Color Negative Film 5250.

NASA officials initially vetoed Glenn’s idea of taking a camera aboard his spacecraft for fear it would distract him from the mission’s primary goals. After an appeal to NASA Director Robert Gilruth, Glenn ultimately received permission to use a camera during his space flight. However, the lack of a space photography department in NASA’s infant manned space program required Glenn to obtain his own camera. He needed to locate a model he could operate in zero gravity while wearing the bulky gloves of his spacesuit. After asking advice to famous Life photographer Ralph Morse, Glenn eventually discovered such a camera, a 35mm Ansco Autoset with a 50mm lens (actually a Minolta Hi-Matic, repackaged by the New York-based Ansco Company), in a drug store in Cocoa Beach, just outside of Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the first models that automatically advanced the film roll between shots, NASA technicians rigged the camera with a trigger mechanism Glenn could operate while in space.

The malfunction of his spacecraft’s automatic control system during the second orbit limited Glenn’s opportunities to make use of his camera. Nevertheless, he did manage to document his time in space and catched this panoramic view of the Florida coast at the beginning of the third orbit, from the cloud covered Georgia border (right) to just above Cape Canaveral (left).

“In the decade of Gemini and Apollo that followed Glenn’s historic flight, others used more sophisticated equipment and flew higher and farther. Yet Glenn’s pioneering achievement remains. His success helped convince NASA management of the feasibility of astronaut photography.
‘I think [my experience] put to rest forever the idea that the astronaut is going to get so disconcerted by a camera being aboard that he or she is going to be taking pictures when they should be doing other things. Certainly during the emergencies of the flight I was not out taking pictures, jazzing around,’ said John Glenn” (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 16).

003:11:14 Capcom (Mission Control): Roger, Friendship Seven. We have nothing for you, you’re in good shape.
003:11:18 Glenn: Roger, this is Friendship Seven. I have the Cape in sight down there. It looks real fine from up here.
003:11:24 Capcom: Rog. Rog.
003:11:26 Glenn: As you know.
003:11:29 Capcom: Yea, verily, Sonny.003:11:37 Glenn: This is Friendship Seven, Flor-, I can see the whole state of Florida just laid out like on a map. Beautiful.
003:11:45 Capcom: Very good.
003:11:49 Glenn: Even from this position out here, I can still see clear back to the Mississippi Delta.
003:12:32 Glenn: This is Friendship Seven, checking down in Area Hotel on the weather and it looks good down that way. Looks like we’ll have no problem on recovery.
003:12:41 Capcom: Very good. We’ll see you in Grand Turk.