In February 1962 John Glenn became the the first US astronaut to go into orbit. His Mercury 6 capsule is on display in the National Air and Space Museum and this photo I took of it is my current favourite from my whole trip.

I like that even behind the perspex designed to protect the capsule you can see the designer’s clear priorities based on the jolly big ABORT button within easy reach.

The capsule Yuri Gagarin had used the year before to become the first human in space was designed to have him eject following re-entry and parachute his way back to Earth. A handy design feature that doubled as a built in abort button. Smart but kinda takes the fun out of it, don’t you think?