Friendship 7 - Space Junk Series #02 Traditional Cache

There is always an imminent threat of "something falling from space"...

This series commemorates space junk that fell to Earth off various satellites during the past few weeks. Extreme measures were exhausted to FTF these marvelous historic pieces for your enjoyment before muggles got to them, so please treat them with awe and respect. All space junk pieces have been scrutinised for outer space viruses, bacteria, other contaminants, ionisized Psychlodinian dust and ear worm eggs. Those that showed any threat were incinerated for your safety, except for the SPUTNIK piece.... It is Russian. It does not want to melt...Each piece also warrants some edification on its source

FRIENDSHIP 7

Although not a "true" satellite of scientific or instrumentation proportions, Friendship 7 was deemed a manned satellite and is included in this series for its historic value

On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. The mission was to send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. The delivery vehicle was a Mercury-Atlas 6 rocket that carried a manned satellite - Friendship 7 - into space with Astronaut John Glenn as pilot and who became the first American to orbit Earth

Friendship 7 orbited Earth at 28,000 Km/h at a height of 260 Km and completed three successful orbits. The complete mission lasted 4h 55m 23s from lift off to splash down

However... this was not the first historical mission for Friendship 7. Nor was Glenn the first American in space. On 05 May 1961 Alan B Shepard Jr. also flew into space on board Friendship 7. Shepard was the first American in space, but did not go into orbit. The mission was to send Shepard into suborbital space and come back down. The mission lasted 15 minutes and lifted Friendship 7 to 186 km above Earth

(Adapted from contents credit to NASA)