Astronaut/Senator
On October 29, 1998 at the age of 77, Senator John Glenn, returned to space on Discovery voyage, shuttle mission STS-95, his first space flight in over 36 years. His mission included exploring the effects of weightlessness on aging.
John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth on the Mercury mission, spacecraft Friendship 7 which launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. About his selection for this mission, John Glenn said "The Manned Space Program started in l958....The announcement of the selections of the first seven astronauts, of which I was one, was made in April, l959....I made America's first orbital flight on February 20, l962, in Friendship 7."
After retiring from NASA with the rank of Colonel in 1965, John Glenn ran for public office as a Democrat. He was U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1975 until 1998. He chose not to run for re-election in 1998.
John Glenn co-authored "We Seven", published in 1962. He made the first supersonic transcontinental flight on July 16, 1957.
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. was born in Cambridge, Ohio on 18 July 1921, the son of John Herschel and Clara (Sproat) Glenn. He married Anna Margaret Castor in April of 1943. He has two children, Carolyn Ann and John David.
Click on the links below to learn more about John Glenn and his space missions.
NASA site about Discovery launch
Posted by Contact on Tuesday November 17, 1998.