On May 24, 1962, NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter became the fourth American to go to space and the second American to orbit the Earth.

On May 24, 1962, NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter became the fourth American to go to space and the second American to orbit ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. On Feb. 20, 1962, NASA astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth.

John Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight took less than five hours. But the lessons NASA learned that day continue to propel the agency forward today. The United States was falling behind in the space race in ...

In June 1962, a little more than a year after President John F. Kennedy put the U.S. on course for the moon, NASA's piloted spaceflight organizations agreed that Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) should be ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. On March 31, 1962, NASA approved the design of the new Gemini spacecraft. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com]This ...

John F. Kennedy had not even taken the oath of office when the battle began. In December 1960, with the inauguration a month away, the U.S. Air Force launched a first strike—not against a foreign ...

This historic photograph was captured in full color by John Glenn, the first human being to take photographs from space, showing the Planet Earth’s brilliant blue and white horizon at the lower half ...

Fifty years ago, on Dec. 14, 1962, reporters gathered for a press briefing at NASA headquarters and heard an unearthly sound: radio signals being beamed back by a spacecraft flying within 22,000 miles ...