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 Lyles Glenn Jr. 1929. On April 18, 1929, Glenn was nominated by President Herbert Hoover to a joint appointment to new seats on the United States District Court for the Western District of South Carolina and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina created by 45 Stat. 1319. Glenn was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 29, 1929, and received his commission the same day. He served until his death, in Chester, in 1938. John Lyles Glenn Jr. John Lyles Glenn Jr. (April 2, 1892 – May 2, 1938) was a United States federal judge. Born