When Colonel Glenn flew in Friendship 7, the times conspired to make him into, perhaps, the last unquestioned American hero.

In February of 1962, the society-shaking events of the '60s were still in the future: the Cuban Missile Crisis was a few months away, the civil rights struggle was in its infancy, US involvement in Viet Nam was minimal and unopposed, the assassination of JFK was almost two years away, the idea that the money spent on a space program could be better spent elsewhere was seldom voiced. Americans did not yet view events through the lens of cynicism many would adopt as the decade wore on.

There was no reason not to adore John Glenn. He was not a pawn of the military-industrial complex. He did not represent a government many had come to distrust. He was All-American at about the last moment it was possible too be such a thing.