The Quatermass Experiment

The serial's storyline concerns the first three humans to journey into outer space and to orbit the Earth. John Glen plays the major role of Dr. Gordon Briscoe. On February 20, 1962, almost nine years later in real life, his near namesake John Glenn became the fifth person in space as well as the first American to orbit the Earth. He was the second person overall to orbit the Earth after the first person in space, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.