Mercury Friendship 7 and Gemini IV

Mercury “Friendship 7,” pictured right, was the spacecraft in which astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth. Gemini IV, pictured left, was the second of 10 manned Gemini missions, which perfected the techniques of spacecraft rendezvous and docking and demonstrated that astronauts could withstand prolonged weightlessness for the planned Apollo missions to the Moon. Both crafts are on display in the “Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall” in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.