On 20 Feb 1962, he became the first American to orbit the Earth, doing so three times in the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7, in a flight lasting 4 hr 55 min. After retiring from NASA, he was elected to the US Senate as a Democrat from Ohio 1974; re-elected 1980 and 1986. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination 1984. As a senator, he advocated nuclear-arms-production limitations and increased aid to education and job-skills programmes.
