John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and then U.S. senator, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio at age 95 as reported by the New York Times. Glenn became synonymous with the Space Age when he first orbited the Earth in 1962 and then became a national political figure when he served as the U.S. Senator from Ohio for 24 years.
America watched in anticipation in 1962 when he, a Marine Corps test pilot at the time, climbed into Friendship 7 along with six other American astronauts in Cape Canaveral in Florida. After weeks of delays, Friendship 7 finally achieved liftoff and the short flight consisted of three orbits around Earth. The successful space mission proved that Americans could compete with the space accomplishments of the Soviet Union and the Cold War.
An affable and humble Midwesterner, Glenn never saw himself as an American hero, but was given a hero’s welcome when Friendship 7 came back to Florida, including meeting then-president of the United States John F. Kennedy at the White House, participating in parades across the country, and speaking at the Capitol.
After resigning from NASA in 1964, Glenn journeyed into politics and became the U.S. senator from Ohio in 1974, beginning a 24-year career in the Senate and an attempted presidential run in 1984. Ever the astronaut, Glenn returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77, becoming the oldest person to go into space and proving that age is nothing but a number.
In recent years, Glenn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and the John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland was renamed for him.
Glenn is survived by his wife Anna and two children, Carolyn and John David, and two grandsons, Daniel and Zach Glenn.
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