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 High School (Walkerton, Indiana) finishing second. John Glenn High School's athletic teams are the Falcons and they are part of the Northern Indiana Athletic Conference in the IHSAA. The school is currently athletic rivals with the inter-conference team Bremen Lions of Bremen High School in Bremen. The Falcons were formerly rivals with the North Liberty Shamrocks; however, this rivalry ended after the two schools merged. The school offers a wide range of athletics including: John Glenn High School (Walkerton, Indiana) John Glenn High School is a public high school in Walkerton, Indiana. It is the only high school in the John Glenn School district.