John Glenn: An American Hero, Oldest Human To Travel In Space, And Historical Legend
John Glenn made history in 1962 as the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. The astronaut and politician is also the oldest human to travel in space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn piloted the Friendship 7 spacecraft, which was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. For nearly five hours, he orbited Earth three times.
John Glenn became an American hero after his fateful mission. He received numerous accolades, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal presented by President John F. Kennedy.
John Glenn returned to space on October 29, 1998. At the age of 77, Glenn boarded the space shuttle Discovery for a nine-day mission, becoming the oldest human ever to travel in space. One of his many goals for the mission included investigating aging and space travel.
On July 18, 1921, John Hershel Glenn, Jr. was born in Cambridge, Ohio — the son of John Herschel and mother Clara Sproat Glenn. At age two, John and his family moved to New Concord, where his father opened a plumbing business. After moving to New Concord, the Glenn family built a home, which they arranged to double as a rooming house for students from nearby Muskingum College.
After graduating from the local high school in 1939, John attended Muskingum College. In 1942, Glenn entered into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. After completing his studies, the following year Glenn was deployed in the Pacific front of World War II with the U.S. Marines Corps. While he was stationed in the Pacific, Glenn flew 59 combat missions.
Glenn remained in the military after World War II and eventually served during the Korean War. He worked with both the Air Force and Marines on close to 90 missions. Later John enrolled in the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland.
He served as a test pilot for Naval and Marine aircraft. One of John Glenn’s most noteworthy accomplishments during his time as a test pilot was when he broke the 1957 speed record, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes. This remarkable achievement secured John Glenn’s reputation as one of America’s top test pilots and provided a stepping-stone for his involvement in the up-and-coming space exploration program.
In 1958, a space program and astronaut corps was formed and John Glenn’s skill and experience made him a logical candidate, and he ultimately entered. When NASA called out for volunteers to participate in its suborbital and orbital program, without hesitation John Glenn volunteered.
In 1959, NASA selected John Glenn Jr., a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, as one of the first seven astronauts in the U.S. space program. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn skyrocketed into space, where he piloted the Friendship 7 spacecraft around the globe three times, making him the first American to orbit earth.
After his historic flight into space, John Glenn became an American hero. However, he soon found that NASA did not have another flight assignment plan for him. Nevertheless, he served as an advisor to NASA until 1964, when his interests grew to public affairs.
Earlier in John Glenn’s career, the pilot and American hero was encouraged by Robert Kennedy to seek public office. John eventually took Kennedy’s advice, retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel, and ran for the United States Senate.
He entered the Ohio Democratic primary and challenged incumbent Democratic Sen. Stephen M. Young. Early in the campaign, an accident forced him to leave the race, and he put his political career on hold.
John Glenn joined Royal Crown Cola and became vice president and then president after recovering from the accident. But Glenn was still interested in public service and ran for the senate again. His opponent, Howard Metzenbaum, defeated him in the 1970 primaries, but four years later Glenn ran for the senate, and this time he was successful, easily winning over his Republican opponent, former Cleveland Mayor Ralph J. Perk.
On October 29, 1998, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth made history again. John Glenn attracted considerable media attention when he returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Glenn became the oldest man to fly in space by serving as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
According to NASA, the flight aboard the shuttle was relatively different from Glenn’s first mission. The mission lasted nine days and orbited the Earth 134 times, traveling a distance of 3.6 million miles in 213 hours and 44 minutes. The landing was also different. The shuttle Discovery re-entered earth’s atmosphere quite effortlessly – a mere 3 Gs, half of what John Glenn experienced aboard Friendship 7. The crew safely landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In 1999, John Glenn retired from his U.S. Senate seat after serving his public for four consecutive terms — a record for the state of Ohio. After retiring from the senate and returning from space, John and his wife Annie Glenn founded the John Glenn Institute for Public Service at the Ohio State University.
Through the institute’s various programs, they try to improve the quality of public service and to encourage young people to pursue careers in government. John Glenn and his wife Annie also serve as trustees of Muskingum College, their alma mater.
[Photo By NASA/Getty Images]
