John Glenn RIP
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| John Herschel Glenn Jr. July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016 American aviator, engineer, astronaut United States Senator from Ohio |
Slowly over time I learned of who he was and what he was about and came to know the hero of science and technology he had become without fully grasping those risks of the era.
He was the first American to orbit the Earth in a capsule named Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 which was a Mercury-Atlas 6 mission and circled the planet three times over the course of 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds flight time. At that moment he became the third American and fifth human being in space.
John Glenn was a US Senator from Ohio serving for 25 years and chaired the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.
He returned to NASA as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission on October 29, 1998 at age 77, becoming the oldest person to go into space.
This man, who had "the right stuff" passed yesterday in Columbus, Ohio at age 95. Thus we have lost an icon of whom I have known and respected my entire life.
Rest in peace.