Lot 39

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John Glenn in weightlessness during the first US orbital spaceflight; recovery of Friendship 7; Glenn during his fourth sunset of the day, February 20, 1962

Camera in Mercury Atlas 6; NASA; Dean Conger

Name: John Glenn in weightlessness during the first US orbital spaceflight; recovery of Friendship 7; Glenn during his fourth sunset of the day, February 20, 1962
Brand: Camera in Mercury Atlas 6; NASA; Dean Conger
Price: 300.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 375

Estimate

GBP 1,500 - GBP 2,500

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

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John Glenn in weightlessness during the first US orbital spaceflight; recovery of Friendship 7; Glenn during his fourth sunset of the day, February 20, 1962

Camera in Mercury Atlas 6; NASA; Dean Conger

Price Realised GBP 375

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

Price Realised GBP 375

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

39 a
Taken by a pilot observer movie camera inside the Friendship 7 Spacecraft

John Glenn in weightlessness during the first American orbital spaceflight

Mercury Atlas 6, February 20, 1962

Vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA HQ caption numbered “62-MA6-168” on the verso

39 b
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Recovery on board the USS NOA of the Friendship 7 spacecraft hosting the first American in orbit John Glenn

Mercury Atlas 6, February 20, 1962

Two vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA Cape Canaveral captions on the versos

39 c
Dean Conger

John Glenn checking the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the deck of USS NOA during his fourth sunset of the day

Mercury Atlas 6, February 20, 1962

Vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA HQ caption (indicating the print was made in 1963-1964 due to the ZIP code) on the verso
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

39 c
Cover of Life Magazine, March 2, 1962 (variant).

“When I was back on Earth they asked me about the day and I said, ‘What can you say about a day when you had four sunsets and four sunrises?”
John Glenn (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 17)

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Lot Essay

The first American to orbit the Earth “photographed in space by an automatic sequence motion picture camera. He was in a state of weightlessness traveling at 17,500 mph” (NASA caption).

“Weightlessness was a pleasant experience. I reported I felt fine as soon as the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle, and throughout the flight this feeling continued to be the same. Approximately every 30 minutes throughout the flight I went through a series of exercises to determine whether weightlessness was affecting me in any way.
To see if head movement in a zero g environment produced any symptoms of nausea or vertigo, I tried first moving, then shaking my head from side to side, up and down, and tilting it from shoulder to shoulder. In other words, moving my head in roll, pitch, and yaw. I began slowly, but as the flight progressed, I moved my head more rapidly and vigorously until at the end of the flight I was moving as rapidly as my pressure suit would allow. The spacecraft was in its normal orbit attitude and the camera caught me in the middle of this test, and this photograph shows the extent to which I was moving my head,” related John Glenn (Pilot’s Flight Report).

“To see if head movement in a zero g environment produced any symptoms of nausea or vertigo, I tried first moving, then shaking my head from side to side, up and down, and tilting it from shoulder to shoulder. In other words, moving my head in roll, pitch, and yaw.”
John Glenn

“During the flight, the spacecraft attained a maximum velocity in excess of 28,000 km/hour and an altitude of about 260 km. The capsule reentered after completing three orbits, coming down in the Atlantic Ocean some 1,300 km southeast of Bermuda. The duration of the flight was 4 hours 55 minutes and 23 seconds during which Glenn travelled over 121,000 km. After splashdown, the Mercury capsule with its pilot still inside were picked up after 21 minutes in the water and returned by helicopter to the destroyer USS Noa” (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-003A).

A variant of this photograph graced the cover of Life Magazine on March 2, 1962 following Glenn’s flight.

As the Sun was setting over the Atlantic Ocean, Dean Conger, National Geographic’s photographer, took this photograph of John Gleen checking his Friendship 7 spacecraft after he had completed three orbits around the Earth, traveling at 17,500 mph and watching three sunrises and three sunsets from space. Engineer Ralph Gendiellee (inside the capsule) handed Glenn his bag from the recovered space capsule, containing a camera, film, field glasses, and other flight gear.