After three orbits, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the North Atlantic Ocean, and was safely taken aboard USS Noa.

After the successful completion of the Mercury-Atlas 5 flight that carried Enos, a chimpanzee, in late November 1961, a press conference was held in early December.

As the effects of orbital space flight on humans were unknown except to the Soviets, who were keeping whatever knowledge they had a secret, Glenn was prepared with an onboard medical kit consisting of morphine for pain relief, mephentermine sulfate to treat any shock symptoms, benzylamine hydrochloride to counter motion sickness and racemic amphetamine sulfate, a stimulant.

[7] In addition, due to the lessons learnt from the previous two manned flights, MA-6 was the first American spaceflight to include a dedicated urine collection device.

Glenn, however, was successful in persuading NASA that he should be allowed to take one on the mission, and a Minolta Hi-Matic[a] 35mm film camera (which he purchased himself at a local drug store) duly made the trip into orbit.

[11] The spacecraft's name was developed democratically, with Glenn, his wife, Annie, and their children all participating in the process, consulting dictionaries and a thesaurus for possibilities.

NASA informed the anxious public that the mission would take time to get ready since crewed launches required a high degree of preparation and safety standards.

Glenn boarded the Friendship 7 spacecraft at 11:03 UTC on February 20 following an hour-and-a-half delay to replace a faulty component in the Atlas's guidance system.

[13] O'Malley said, "the good Lord ride all the way," and then capsule communicator Scott Carpenter uttered the famous phrase "Godspeed, John Glenn.

Thirty seconds after liftoff, the General Electric-Burroughs designed guidance system locked onto a radio transponder in the booster to guide the vehicle to orbit.

When the posigrade rockets fired and separated the capsule from the booster, the five-second rate-damping operation started two and a half seconds late.

Looking at the African coastline, and later the interior over Kano, Nigeria, Glenn told the tracking station team that he could see a dust storm.

Clouds prevented him from seeing a mortar flare fired by the Indian Ocean tracking ship as part of a pilot observation experiment.

Continuing his journey on the night side of Earth, nearing the Australian coastline, Glenn made star, weather, and landmark observations.

[5] As the spacecraft crossed the Kauai, Hawaii tracking station, Glenn noticed a lot of interference on the HF radio band.

After about twenty minutes, the yaw thruster began working again and Glenn switched back to the automatic control system.

Mercury Control ordered all tracking sites to monitor "Segment 51" closely and advise Glenn that the landing-bag deploy switch should be in the "off" position.

The Kano, Nigeria and Zanzibar sites suddenly noticed a 12 percent drop in the spacecraft secondary oxygen supply.

The tracking station had planned to release balloons for a pilot observation experiment, but instead the ship fired star-shell parachute flares as Friendship 7 passed overhead.

On the third orbit of Friendship 7, the Indian Ocean tracking ship did not attempt to launch any objects for pilot observation experiments, as the cloud coverage was still too thick.

Glenn asked Cooper to notify General Shoup, Commandant of the Marine Corps, that three orbits should meet the minimum monthly requirement of four hours' flying time.

The Hawaiian tracking station asked Glenn to toggle the landing bag deploy switch into the automatic position.

Given the earlier questions about the landing bag switch, Glenn realized the controllers must have found a possible problem with a loose heat shield.

Walter Schirra, the California communicator at Point Arguello, relayed the instructions to Glenn: the retro pack should be retained until the spacecraft was over the Texas tracking station.

After the mission was over, the "Segment 51" warning light problem was later determined to be a faulty sensor switch, meaning that the heat shield and landing bag were in fact secure during reentry.

A strap from the retro package broke partially loose and hung over the spacecraft window as it was consumed in the reentry plasma stream.

[18] After the return of Friendship 7, NASA announced on April 19, 1962, that the spacecraft would be lent to the United States Information Agency for a world tour.

[7] Mercury spacecraft # 13 – Friendship 7 – is currently displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the National Air and Space Museum’s annex, in Chantilly, Virginia.

The mysterious "fireflies" are also shown, but their true explanation is not revealed; instead they are depicted as magical protection summoned by Aboriginal Australians at the Muchea Tracking Station.

The 2016 film Hidden Figures features the Friendship 7 mission in the climax of the movie, focusing on Katherine Johnson's calculations of the landing.