Some 1,020 reporters, commentators, technicians, and others of the news media from the U.S. and several foreign countries gathered at Cape Canaveral, with another 130 at the NASA News Center in Hawaii, to cover the Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) mission.

Over the course of these days at Cape Canaveral, Western Union estimated that approximately 600,000 words of copy were filed, of which 140,000 were transmitted to European media. This does not include stories phoned in by reporters nor copy filed from the Pacific News Center, or for radio and TV coverage. During the 546,167-statute-mile flight, television audiences could see the astronaut or views inside and outside the spacecraft from time to time. Approximately 1 hour and 58 minutes were programed. Visual coverage was relayed to Europe via satellites.