John Glenn is in the capsule and expected to be launched into orbit, but the mission that day is postponed. Meanwhile, the vice president, LBJ, is trying to get Glenn's wife to appear with him on TV. She refuses, as she speaks with a stutter. Incensed, LBJ decides to "go to the top". Once out of the capsule, Glenn is ordered by the director to tell his wife to cooperate. He refuses, telling his wife by phone not to let the vice-president into their home. When the director suggests someone else will be given his spot, his fellow astronauts back him up. Soon Glenn, boosted on Mercury-Atlas 6, becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. Arriving at a communications site in Australia, Cooper meets Aboriginal Australians and explains their mission. One says their elder has been to space in his mind. Glenn's mission is cut short from seven orbits to three, as an alarm suggests a possibly loose heat shield, while he sees sparks outside the capsule in the Earth's shadow, which he calls "fireflies". While initially keeping the danger of a catastrophic failure from Glenn, his fellow astronauts insist he be told the condition of his craft. Von Braun decides that the capsule's best chance is to not jettison the package below the heat shield, hoping the straps will keep it and the heat shield in place for re-entry. Glenn is heard humming as the capsule violently hits the atmosphere. He survives and receives a ticker-tape parade. The entire Mercury Seven and their families become celebrities, and are feted at a gigantic celebration to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston. During an interview, Cooper is asked, who's the greatest pilot he's ever seen. In a long answer he is about to name Chuck Yeager, but is interrupted by other reporters, so says "You're looking at him," which he often says to his wife.