When we talk about space exploration, we cannot skip John Glenn. He is the first US astronaut to orbit Earth aboard Friendship 7.
At age 77, Glenn was the oldest human to go into space, according to Reuters. He stayed for almost nine days aboard space shuttle orbiter Discovery.
Let's take a look at the life story of the man with a significant contribution on space science.
Who is John Glenn?
Glenn was born as John Herschel Glenn Jr. on July 18, 1921, at Cambridge, Ohio. He completed his primary and secondary in schools located in New Concord, Ohio, while he finished his bachelor of science degree in engineering at Muskingum College in New Concord, NASA's website stated.
In March 1942, Glenn joined the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. After he graduated in 1943, he became part of the Marine Corps. He later joined the Marine Fighter Squadron 155.
While being part of the Marine Fighter Squadron, he spent a year flying F-4U fighters where he flew 59 combat missions. That was during World War II.
When the war ended, Glenn became a member of the Marine Fighter Squadron 218. He worked as an advanced flight training instructor at Corpus Christi, Texas, from June 1948 to December 1950.
Eventually, Glenn finished Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Md. He became a project officer on a number of aircraft after graduation.
Glenn has a record of completing almost 9,000 hours of flying time, with around 3,000 hours of it in jets.
Glenn was later on selected as a Mercury astronaut, and in April 1959 he was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Va.
His flight in Friendship 7 capsule lasted for 4-hour, 55-minute. Prior to it, Glenn served as backup pilot for Alan Shepard and to Virgil "Gus" Grissom.
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John Glenn's Legacy
Glenn was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts of NASA. He flew to space aboard Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962 and was recognized as the first US astronaut to orbit planet Earth.
Glenn's flight aboard Friendship 7 didn't go smoothly as problems arose during the flight. The automatic control system failed.
"I went to manual control and continued in that mode during the second and third orbits, and during re-entry," Glenn said in an interview.
There was an even more serious problem that he experienced while on space as the telemetry reads that the spacecraft's heat shield was loose.
But Glenn managed to overcome the problems, and returned to Earth safely.
Glenn temporarily ended his career as an astronaut on Jan. 16, 1964. In October 1964, he became a colonel. Eventually, on Jan. 1, 1965, he left the Marine Corps.
Later on his career, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions. In addition, for his service during World War II and Korea, he was awarded the Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
Glenn contributed to Ohio politics and environmental protection efforts. He eventually ventured in politics and won his Senate seat in 1974. In 1980, he was re-elected. He was elected for the third time in 1986, and for the fourth time in 1992.
Glenn's last mission was in 1998 when he flew the STS-95 Discovery shuttle flight.
He passed away on Dec. 8, 2016 at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.
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