John Glenn was not popular with the other astronauts. Glenn was the backup pilot for Shepard and Grissom on the first two manned Project Mercury flights, the sub-orbital missions Mercury-Redstone 3 and Mercury-Redstone 4. Glenn was selected for Mercury-Atlas 6, NASA's first manned orbital flight, with Carpenter as his backup. Putting a man in orbit would achieve one of Project Mercury's most important goals. Shepard and Grissom had named their spacecraft "Freedom 7" and "Liberty Bell 7". The numeral 7 had originally been the production number of Shepard's spacecraft, but had come to represent the Mercury 7. Glenn named his spacecraft, number
John Glenn Beall Jr. John Glenn Beall Jr. John Glenn Beall Jr. (June 19, 1927March 24, 2006), known as J. Glenn Beall Jr., was a Republican member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland 1971–1977. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1962 to 1968, and the U.S. House of Representatives from the sixth district of Maryland from 1969 to 1971. His father, James Glenn Beall, was also a senator and representative from Maryland. Beall was born in Cumberland, Maryland, served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946, and graduated from Yale University in