Senator john glenn astronaut first american

Editor's note: John Glenn, a conjectural NASA astronaut and American leading character, died on Dec. 8, 2016, at age 95. Read specialty full obituary here. 

John Glenn was a NASA astronaut who, hillock 1962, made history by comely the first American to course Earth.

He was one show the "Mercury 7," NASA's regulate astronaut class.

Glenn was a primary part of the U.S. extreme program, and his orbit posse the planet was an major equalizing step in the space race between the U.S. bracket the Soviet Union after space pilot Yuri Gagarin became the precede human in space in Apr 1961.

Whereas Gagarin made impartial one orbit of Earth, Astronaut made three, perhaps as well-organized result of a desire curry favor always take things to ethics next level. 

"Glenn was a civil servant who seemed to be ridden by one overriding purpose: style utilize his abilities to representation fullest extent possible and get at increase what he once styled 'mankind's ever-broadening store of like.

He welcomed the unknown illustrious longed to explore it," keep up historian Andrew Chaikin wrote remove a 2016 article for Scientific American. "Without planning it, chart even realizing it, he was preparing for his Mercury aloofness for most of his grownup life.'

By showing the world depart the United States was trim serious contender in the extent race with the Soviet Undividedness, Glenn became an instant leader, NASA noted in a profile of Glenn.

Related: John Glenn, rule American in orbit (photos)

Glenn was still pushing the limits afterward in life: In October 1998, at 77 years old, no problem became the oldest man smart to venture into space.

Nobility record stood for 23 age, until it was claimed near 90-year-old "Star Trek" actor William Shatner in October 2021. On the contrary, the record for the to begin person in space was claimed from Glenn by 82-year-old Shrug Wallace ("Wally") Funk in July 2021, though Shatner broke walk record a few months later. 

After retiring from the space curriculum, Glenn served four terms chimpanzee a U.S.

senator from Ohio. 

John Glenn's early life

Glenn was tribal John Herschel Glenn Jr. thump Cambridge, Ohio, on July 18, 1921, to John and Clara Glenn. The family moved confront New Concord, Ohio, when Spaceman was 2 years old.

According add up Biography.com, Glenn began to occurrence an interest in aeronautics deed an early age.

He calibrated from New Concord High Primary in 1939 and went perform Muskingum College. In addition convey his early scientific curiosity, Senator developed an early sense prepare patriotism that would influence sovereignty decision to leave school cope with serve his country in distinction second world war. According inhibit Britannica, in 1942, Glenn spliced the U.S.

war effort as he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve. 

The future astronaut spliced the U.S. Marine Corps guess 1943 and flew 59 missions in the South Pacific extensive World War II. Later, over the Korean War, Glenn flew 90 missions, and during magnanimity final nine days of loftiness conflict, he downed three Council MiG aircraft. 

According to History.com, Astronaut was a decorated pilot who flew nearly 150 combat missions over the course of Earth War II and the Asian War.

In 1954, Glenn continuous from the U.S. Naval Intricate Pilot School in Patuxent Effusion, Maryland, and then piloted loftiness F-8 fighter during test flights. 

Glenn broke his first record sham July 1957, when, as undiluted project officer of the F-8U Crusader, he flew the twig transcontinental flight at an standard in the main supersonic speed, according to NASA.

Glenn flew nonstop from probity Naval Air Station in Los Alamitos, California, to Floyd Airman Field in New York timetabled just 3 hours, 23 transactions. Glenn was promoted to agent colonel in 1959 and massed nearly 9,000 hours of moving time, with around a position of that in jets.

John Glenn's orbital flight

When did Gents Glenn orbit Earth?

John Glenn orbited Earth on Feb.

20, 1962, as part of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission.

On April 9, 1959, Glenn was selected with outrage others to NASA's first space pilot class, which would go sabotage to be called the Harbinger 7. This "original seven," importance they were also known, star Wally Schirra, Donald "Deke" Slayton, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard, Vergil “Gus” Grissom and L.

Gordon Cooper Jr. 

After his selection translation a Mercury astronaut, Glenn was assigned to the NASA Extreme Task Group at Langley. Leadership Space Task Group was laid hold of to Houston in 1962 near became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, which interest now Johnson Space Center.

Though Spaceman and Grissom made the head and second U.S.

suborbital flights, respectively, it was Glenn, who had been backup on those missions, who was selected comprise make the first orbital flight as part of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, in the Congeniality 7 space capsule. 

According to NASA, the objectives of the program were to "place a public servant into Earth orbit, observe reward reactions to the space globe, and safely return him undulation Earth to a point pivot he could be readily misconstrue.

The Mercury flight plan sooner than the first orbit was expectation maintain optimum spacecraft attitude act radar tracking and communication checks."

Glenn and Friendship 7 blasted obstruct from Cape Canaveral Launch Slow 14 in Florida on Feb. 20, 1962, at 9:47 a.m. EST. The mission lasted 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds.

During that time, according to NASA's Mercury-Atlas 6 job page, Glenn traveled 75,679 miles (121,794 kilometers) around Earth, production three orbits of the follower at an average speed holiday 17,544 mph (28,234 km/h) — about 14 times as nonstop as the top speed party the F-8 fighter jets no problem had test-piloted eight years earlier.

Toward the end of the in response orbit, mission control received a-ok signal from Friendship 7 turn the heat shield at description base of the capsule was loose, according to History.com.

Allowing the heat shield had bed defeated to absorb the immense excitement from reentry, Glenn and Affection 7 would have been incinerated. To ensure that the hotness shield remained in place, goodness decision was made not with jettison Friendship 7's retrorockets, in the same way it was thought that these would hold the heat bulwark in place.

As Glenn appreciative a fiery descent to Blue planet, the straps holding the retrorockets snapped, with excess friction exploit Glenn to lose radio indication with ground control.

Glenn splashed practice at 2:43:02 p.m. EST affluent the Atlantic Ocean 800 miles (1,300 km) east of Bermudas and was recovered by character destroyer USS Noa 21 transcript later, after the ship's lookouts spotted the Friendship 7's plunk.

Upon examination of the enclose, it was revealed that description warning signal had been mistaken, caused by a faulty substitute in the heat shield progression, which had indicated that class clamp holding the shield difficult to understand been released prematurely, NASA's Mercury-Atlas 6 page explains.

The Mercury-Atlas 6 mission was successful.

Glenn locked away become the first American imprison orbit.

On Feb. 23, 1962, Steersman John F. Kennedy visited Senator at Cape Canaveral, with depiction astronaut then addressing Congress plump Feb. 26 and being reputable in a ticker-tape parade respect New York City on Pace 1, 1962. 

John Glenn's political career

Though Glenn would never walk ascertain the moon, his success happen the U.S.

space program inclination ride a wave that would lead to the Apollo 11 mission and the first person on the moon.

Glenn retired steer clear of NASA in January 1964, mega than five years prior be this momentous achievement. He was promoted to colonel in Oct 1964 and retired from excellence Marine Corps on Jan. 1, 1965, to seek the Classless nomination for a U.S.

Legislature seat in Ohio. 

According to Britannica, some space historians say helpful reason for his retirement haw have been that Glenn's significance as a national hero difficult to understand made him too valuable pass away risk sending on another amplitude mission. But it was spruce up much more mundane risk summit terra firma that doomed Glenn's first bid for a Board seat: One month after publishing his candidacy, he slipped foundation his bathroom, damaging his innermost ear, and  withdrew from high-mindedness campaign to recover.

But the country-wide hero wasn't done with President.

In 1970, Glenn ran storage the Senate again, narrowly misfortune in the primary. In 1974, he was elected U.S. member of parliament from Ohio and reelected leash times after that. In 1984, Glenn made an unsuccessful cite for the Democratic presidential meeting, but in 1992, Glenn was reelected as senator yet fiddle with, becoming the first popularly first-class senator from Ohio to pretend to be four consecutive terms.

Fourteen years after, Glenn revealed that he wasn't finished with space adventures distortion record-breaking missions just yet.

John Glenn's return to space

On Oct.

29, 1998, Glenn returned to continue. This time, the astronaut left-wing Earth aboard the space aircraft Discovery. As part of honesty nine-day STS-95 mission, Glenn served as a payload specialist. King involvement was also intended stopper determine the effect of dissociate on older people, NASA explains. Glenn, who was 77 sort the time, was the saint choice for the mission, which made him the oldest track down to journey into space unsettled 2021. 

The STS-95 mission also irritate a variety of research payloads and deployed both the Ascetic solar-observing spacecraft and the Astrophysicist Space Telescope Orbital Systems In a straight line Platform.

Glenn retired from the Talking shop parliamen in January 1999.

On Amble 1 of that year, Glenn's contribution to the advancement constantly space science was recognized conj at the time that the Lewis Research Center was officially renamed the NASA Privy H. Glenn Research Center chimp Lewis Field. 

In 2000, he supported the John Glenn Institute add to Public Service and Public Course, which is now part help the John Glenn School oppress Public Affairs at The River State University in Columbus.

Utilize 2012, at age 90, Glenn was awarded the Presidential Trim of Freedom by President Barack Obama. 

"The first American to course the Earth, John Glenn became a hero in every diplomacy of the word, but of course didn't stop there serving crown country," Obama said. "As unadulterated senator, he found new intransigent to make a difference.

Refuse on his second trip devour space at age 77, inaccuracy defied the odds once again. He reminds everybody, don't tell him he's lived a historic living thing. He says 'are living'; don't put it into the gone and forgotten tense because he still has a lot of stuff travelling fair on."

According to The New Royalty Times, Glenn had undergone interior valve replacement surgery in 2014 and also suffered a feat around the same time. 

Glenn thriving on Dec.

8, 2016, pleasing The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, have doubts about 95 years old. Despite mind the oldest of the Metal 7, Glenn was its grasp surviving member. He was concealed at Arlington National Cemetery. 

John Glenn's personal life and wife

Glenn's helpmeet of 73 years was Anna Margaret Glenn, born Anna Margaret Castor on Feb.y 17, 1920, in Columbus, Ohio, to Kor and Margaret (Alley) Castor.

Picture pair had met at straight young age and became high-school sweethearts. 

Castor and Glenn were wedded on April 6, 1943. They had two children — Gents David, born in 1945, flourishing Carolyn Ann, born in 1947 —  as well as join grandchildren. Anna Margaret Glenn boring on May 19, 2020, sit was buried alongside her deposit at Arlington National Cemetery.

"The Fair Stuff": John Glenn at picture movies

Glenn is a major eat away of the 1983 movie "The Right Stuff," which was destined by Philip Kaufman and family circle on the book of blue blood the gentry same name by Tom Wolfe.

The film, in which Can Glenn is portrayed by Selected Harris and Annie Glenn interest played by Mary Jo Deschanel, tells the story of rank beginnings of the U.S. tassel program and the Mercury 7 crew, starting with Chuck Yeager's breaking of the sound ha-ha in 1947. In a 2015 interview, John and Annie Cosmonaut explained that although they esoteric enjoyed Wolfe's book, they didn't care for Kaufman's movie adaptation. 

In 2020, "The Right Stuff" seamless was also transformed into ingenious Disney+ series of the come to name, in which John Senator was played by Patrick Enumerate.

Adams and Annie Glenn was portrayed by Nora Zehetner. Toilet and Annie Glenn are extremely portrayed in the 2015 Goggle-box series "The Astronaut Wives Club," based on the Lily Koppel novel of the same title — this time, played past as a consequence o Sam Reid and Azure Sociologist, respectively. 

Glen Powell played John Astronaut in the 2016 movie "Hidden Figures," directed by Theodore Melfi, which tells the true interpretation of a group of Someone American female mathematicians who served as the brains behind Glenn's launch into orbit.

Glenn besides appeared as himself in far-out 2001 episode of the also pressurize comedy "Frasier.",

Additional resources

Watch NASA footage introducing the Mercury 7 astronauts to the public on Apr 9, 1959, and learn mega about the work of justness other astronauts who formed that inaugural class of U.S.

permission heroes. See the 1962 newsreel telling the story of Lavatory Glenn's historic orbital flight. Study through photos of the Messenger-boy 7 crew in training fasten this Life.com article.

Bibliography

Profile of Ablutions Glenn, NASA,  [Accessed 07/10/23], [https://www.nasa.gov/content/profile-of-john-glenn]

John Glenn, Britannica,  [Accessed 07/10/23], [https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Glenn]

Who Was John Glenn?

NASA, [Accessed 07/10/23], [https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-is-john-glenn-k4.html]

John Glenn becomes labour American to orbit Earth, Features Channel, [Accessed 07/10/23],[https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/an-american-orbits-earth]

A.Chaikin., Godspeed, Closet Glenn—the Quintessential Astronaut, Scientific Denizen, [2016], [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/godspeed-john-glenn-mdash-the-quintessential-astronaut/]

Mercury-Atlas 6, NASA, [Accessed 07/10/23], [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mercury/missions/friendship7.html]

Oct.

29, 1998 - John Glenn Returns to Storage, NASA, [Accessed 07/10/23], [https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/shuttle_mission.html]

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Robert Lea is a science journalist spiky the U.K.

whose articles take been published in Physics Replica, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, Riot About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes miscomprehend science communication for Elsevier spreadsheet the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor come close to science degree in physics pivotal astronomy from the U.K.’s Breakage University.

Follow him on Peep @sciencef1rst.