NASA MERCURY FRIENDSHIP 7 1/72 SCALE MODEL

Imported from Japan! February 2012 marks the 50th-anniversary of NASA's first ever manned orbital flight. Dragon celebrates this auspicious event with a 1/72-scale model of the spacecraft that performed this legendary feat. An Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle blasted off from Cape Canaveral on February 20, 1962 carrying a spacecraft known as Mercury Friendship 7. The flight lasted a mere four hours and 56 minutes, circling the globe three times before the capsule reentered orbit. The sole occupant of the NASA mission was astronaut John Glenn and the Friendship 7 craft eventually splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Dragon's model depicts the Mercury spacecraft at its launch. The model of call sign "Friendship 7" is accurately constructed and painted, and the correct series of markings are in place.