American Hero And Astronaut John Glenn Dies at 95

“The Beatles were eight months away from releasing their first single, “Love Me Do,” when John Glenn rocketed into space on Feb. 20, 1962, to become the first American to orbit Earth.

The flight set NASA on course to meet ever-more ambitious goals. Glenn’s three orbits in five hours was eclipsed on the next flight and each one afterward steadily pushed Americans further out from the cradle of Earth, ultimately leading to a series of landings on the moon from 1969 to 1972.

“The whole program shifted rapidly from, ‘Can we do this?’ to basic research,” Glenn told a packed press conference conducted among the displays and consoles that made up Cape Canaveral’s Mercury control center.” – NASA

Former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn died Thursday at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.

Glenn, who served four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio, was one of NASA’s original seven Mercury astronauts. His flight on Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962, showed the world that America was a serious contender in the space race with the Soviet Union. It also made Glenn an instant hero.

Astronaut John Glenn inspects artwork that will be painted on the outside of his Mercury spacecraft, which he nicknamed Friendship 7. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket to become the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.

In 1998, Glenn flew on the STS-95 Discovery shuttle flight, a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and Glenn’s investigations on space flight and the aging process.

John Glenn also ran for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, a year after the 1983 release of The Right Stuff.

NASA expressed their condolences via Twitter and Facebook. This American Hero will truly be missed.

We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra. pic.twitter.com/89idi9r1NB

— NASA (@NASA) December 8, 2016

“We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. He also became a U.S. senator and later, at the age of 77 when he flew on the space shuttle, he became the oldest person to fly in space. Our deepest condolences go out to his dear wife Annie, his children, and the people who were inspired by him and loved him around the world. He was a friend, an astronaut and true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra.”