At the height of the Cold War -- a moment when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history -- the US was losing the space race. When John Glenn blasted into orbit on February 20, 1962, his mission was greater than circling Earth; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America's sense of self-belief. Drawing on new sources, interviews, and Glenn's personal notes, Mercury Rising shows how the astronaut's heroics lifted the nation's hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."
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