Friendship 7: The Epic Orbital Flight of John H. Glenn, Jr. (Springer Praxis Books) 2015th Edition

I have read many books on John Glenn and the Mercury Program over the years and wasn’t expecting to learn much new in reading this book. Was I ever mistaken! I thoroughly enjoyed every page, and once started, I found I couldn’t put the book down. I finished it in two days. There were so many new stories and details I had never heard or read before. If you weren’t alive on February 20, 1962, or would like to re-live the thrill and excitement of Glenn’s historic mission, than this book is an ideal one to read. The early history of the Mercury Program and the chimpanzee flights that preceded the astronauts was fascinating and so well done. I particularly enjoyed the personal comments and recollections with the various crewmen and personnel from the recovery ships Noa and Randolph. The book is generously illustrated with many color and B&W photos, most of which I had never seen before. Colin Burgess did an outstanding job researching for this book and brings Glenn’s mission “alive” once again 54 years later. I highly recommend this book to space enthusiasts or anyone interested in the early years of the Space Race. I am looking forward to reading all of his books in this series on the Mercury flights!

This is the third book out of six planned to cover every single Mercury mission separately. First US orbital flight of John Glenn is covered in great detail ( as are the two suborbital missions of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom in previous two books) from the preparation through the fligt itself - highlighting the drama of the suspected heatshield premature separation - to the safe landing, recovery and the post-flight activities. Personal life of John Glenn has its place here too, both before NASA and after he left the agency to enter the very successful political carier.The book closes with the short description of John Glenn's second flight as a Payload Specialist onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, there is the self-debriefing narrative after the Friendship 7 mission and also the astronaut's speach before the members of the US Congress, and many more.For the first time there are colour photos included which make the book more lively. There are three more books to come in this series which will complete the first pioneering and very successful period of the US manned spaceflight called Project Mercury.

3rd in a series of books about Mercury Program, this one takes you back to John Glenn's historic flight. I always thought I knew a lot about this flight, but once again, Colin taught me a lot. I even learned a lot about the flight of Enos, a chimp who preceded Glenn's orbital flight. It has many photos that you don't see often.

Excellent in-depth coverage of a great story.