February 2012 will mark the anniversary of NASA’s first ever manned orbital flight, which occurred 50 years ago. Dragon is celebrating 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 20 February 1962 carrying a spacecraft known as Mercury Friendship 7. The flight lasted a mere four hours and 56 minutes, circling the globe three times at a velocity of 7,843m/s 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. Although the Soviets had performed the same feat the previous year, it was an important step for NASA in the race to put man on the Moon. Today this famous spacecraft remains on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Dragon’s 1/72 scale model depicts the Mercury-6 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. With the miniature model’s release coinciding with the flight’s 50th anniversary, this is the perfect item for space fans to commemorate this important milestone in the history of American, and world, spaceflight.