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
Fireboat John H. Glenn Jr. River with areas of shallow water. On 2012, Washington DC's Inspector General published a report that the "John Glenn"s maintenance had been dangerously neglected. The report noted that, in addition to not implementing a program of general inspection, the city had neglected to plan or budget for a replacement for the fifty-year-old vessel. The report listed hundreds of other municipalities who had been able to replace or upgrade their fireboats through FEMA Port Security Grants, but that Washington DC had not applied for a grant. The report estimated that it would cost $7 million to replace the John Glenn with