John Glenn

For other people named John Glenn, see John Glenn (disambiguation).

John Glenn
Chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	William V. Roth Jr.
Succeeded by	William V. Roth Jr.
United States Senator from Ohio
In office December 24, 1974 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Howard Metzenbaum
Succeeded by	George Voinovich
Personal details
Born	John Herschel Glenn Jr. (1921-07-18)July 18, 1921 Cambridge, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 8, 2016(2016-12-08) (aged 95) Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Annie Castor ​ ​ (m. 1943;  2016)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Muskingum University (BS) University of Maryland, College Park
Civilian awards	Congressional Gold Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom Congressional Space Medal of Honor NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	United States Navy United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1941–1965
Rank	Colonel
Unit	VMJ-353 VMO-155 VMF-218 VMA-311 25th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
Battles/wars	World War II North China Korean War
Military awards	Distinguished Flying Cross (6) Air Medal (18) Presidential Unit Citation Navy Unit Commendation American Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal China Service Medal Navy Occupation Service Medal National Defense Service Medal Korean Service Medal United Nations Korea Medal Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
Other names	John Herschel Glenn, Jr.
Occupation	Test pilot
Awards
Space career
NASA Astronaut
Time in space	4h 55m 23s
Selection	1959 NASA Group 1
Missions	Mercury-Atlas 6
Mission insignia
Retirement	January 16, 1964
Awards
Space career
NASA Payload Specialist
Time in space	9d 2h 39m
Missions	STS-95
Mission insignia

John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American aviator, engineer, astronaut, and United States Senator from Ohio. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling three times. Before joining NASA, he was a distinguished fighter pilot in both World War II and Korea, with six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters to the Air Medal.

Glenn was one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA to become America's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, he flew the Friendship 7 mission and became the first American to orbit the Earth and the fifth person in space. Glenn received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven. He also received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

After he resigned from NASA in 1964, and retired from the Marine Corps in 1965, Glenn planned to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he first won election to the Senate in 1974 where he served through January 3, 1999.

In 1998, while still a sitting senator, he became the oldest person to fly in space, and the only one to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs as crew member of the Discovery space shuttle. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Early life and education

Glenn's childhood home in New Concord

John Herschel Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the son of John Herschel Glenn, Sr. (1895–1966), who worked for a plumbing firm, and Clara Teresa (née Sproat; 1897–1971), a school teacher. He was raised in nearby New Concord, where his father had a plumbing business, the Glenn Plumbing Company. He had an adopted sister, Jean. He attended New Concord Elementary School.

After graduating from New Concord High School in 1939, he studied Engineering at Muskingum College. He earned a private pilot license for credit in a physics course in 1941. Glenn did not complete his senior year in residence or take a proficiency exam, both requirements of the school for the Bachelor of Science degree. The school granted Glenn his degree in 1962, after his Mercury space flight.

Military career

World War II

Military portrait of John Glenn

When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, Glenn quit college to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. However, he was never called to duty, and in March 1942 enlisted as a United States Navy aviation cadet. He went to the University of Iowa for preflight training, then continued on to NAS Olathe, Kansas, for primary training where he made his first solo flight in a military aircraft. During advanced training at the NAS Corpus Christi, he accepted an offer to transfer to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Upon completing his training in March 1943, Glenn was commissioned as a second lieutenant. After advanced training at Camp Kearny, California, he was assigned to Marine Squadron VMJ-353, flying R4D transport planes. He was posted to the Marine Corps Air Station El Centro in California in July 1943, where he joined VMO-155, which flew the F4F Wildcat fighter. VMO-155 re-equipped with the F4U Corsair in September 1943.

He was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1943 and in January was shipped out to Hawaii. In June 1944, stationed in the Marshall Islands, he flew 59 combat missions over the next two years, bombing and strafing Japanese positions in the area. He was hit by antiaircraft fire five times, and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and ten Air Medals.

Returning to the United States at the end of his one-year tour of duty in 1945, he was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, and then to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. He was promoted to captain in July 1945, shortly before the war's end, but was still unsure as to whether he would receive a regular commission in the Marine Corps. He received orders to return to Cherry Point, where he joined VMF-913, another Corsair squadron. There, he was finally informed that he had qualified for a regular commission.

Glenn next was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California, in March 1946. He volunteered for service with the occupation in North China, believing that it would be a short tour. He joined VMF-218, yet another Corsair squadron, which was based at Nanyuan Field, near Beijing, in December 1946. He flew patrol missions until VMF-218 was transferred to Guam in March 1947. He finally returned home in December 1948.

He was then posted to NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, initially as a student, and then as a flight instructor. In July 1951, he was sent to the Amphibious Warfare School at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia for a six-month course. He was then posted to the staff of the Commandant, Marine Corps Schools. Given only four hours a month of flying time, Glenn maintained his proficiency (and flight pay) by flying on the weekends. He was promoted to major in July 1952.

Korean War

Glenn's USAF F-86F that he dubbed "MiG Mad Marine" during the Korean War, 1953

In October 1952, Glenn was ordered to South Korea during final stages of the Korean War. On February 3, 1953, he reported to K-3, where he was assigned to VMF-311, one of the two Marine fighter squadrons there, as its operations officer. VMF-311 was equipped with the F9F Panther jet fighter-bomber, and was assigned a variety of missions. Glenn flew his first, a reconnaissance flight, on February 26, 1953.

He flew 63 combat missions in Korea with VMF-311, gaining the nickname "magnet ass" from his alleged ability to attract enemy flak, an occupational hazard of low-level close air support missions. On two occasions, he returned to his base with over 250 holes in his aircraft. For a time, he flew with Marine reservist Ted Williams, a future Hall of Fame baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, as his wingman. > He also flew with future major general Ralph H. Spanjer.

Before leaving for Korea, Glenn had applied for a interservice exchange position with the United States Air Force, flying the F-86 Sabre jet fighter-interceptor. He arranged with Colonel Leon W. Gray to check out in the F-86 at Otis Air Force Base in preparation. Glenn later wrote that "Since the days of the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, pilots have viewed air-to-air combat as the ultimate test not only of their machines but of their own personal determination and flying skills. I was no exception."}} In June 1953, he reported for duty with the 25th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, with which he flew 27 combat missions in the faster F-86.

He shot down his first MiG-15s in a dogfight on July 12, 1953. A second followed on July 19, and a third on July 22, in a fight in which a flight of four sabres shot down three MiGs. As it turned out, these were the last aerial victories of the war, which ended with an armistice five days later. For his service in Korea, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice more, and the Air Medal a further eight times.

Test pilot

After combat as fighter pilot, Glenn applied for flight test training, while he was still in Korea, to become a test pilot. He reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River in January 1954, and graduated in July with Class 12.

His first assignment was testing the FJ-3 Fury, a navalized version of the F-86 Sabre, which almost killed him when the cockpit depressurized and the oxygen system failed. He tested the armament on aircraft such as the Vought F7U Cutlass and F8U Crusader. From November 1956 until April 1959, Glenn was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C., during which time he also attended the University of Maryland.

On July 16, 1957, Glenn completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight, He flew 2,445 miles (3,935 km) from NAS Los Alamitos, California, to Floyd Bennett Field, New York, in 3 1/2 hours. For this mission Glenn received his fifth Distinguished Flying Cross He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 April 1959. He now had racked up nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, including approximately 3,000 hours in jets.

NASA career

John Glenn in his Mercury spacesuit

Pre-selection

While Glenn was on duty at Patuxent and Washington, Glenn began to read everything he could about space. His office was requested to furnish a test pilot to be sent to the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to make some runs on a spaceflight simulator, which was a part of NASA research on reentry vehicle shapes. The officer would also be sent to the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania. The test pilot would be subjected to high g-forces in a centrifuge to compare to the data collected in the simulator. Glenn requested this position and was granted it. He spent a few days at Langley and a week in Johnsville for the testing.

Prior to Glenn's appointment as an astronaut in the Mercury program, he participated in the capsule design. NASA had requested that military service members participate in planning the mockup of the capsule. Since Glenn had participated in the research at Langley and Johnsville, combined he with his experience sitting on mock-up boards in the Navy and his knowledge of the capsule procedures, he was sent to the McDonnell plant in St. Louis and acted as a service adviser on the mock-up board.

Selection

In 1958, the newly formed NASA began a recruiting program for astronauts, and Glenn just barely met the requirements. He was close to the age cutoff of 40 and also lacked the required science-based degree at the time. Glenn was on a list of 100 test pilots who met the minimum requirements to become an astronaut. The prospective candidates were screened, and the number of potential candidates was reduced to 32. The candidates were put through a battery of tests, including physical tests to measure stamina and psychological tests to measure maturity, alertness, and to discover what motivated the candidates.

After the testing, the candidates had to wait 10 to 12 days to hear the results. Glenn had returned to his position at the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics at that time, when he received a call from the associate director of Project Mercury, Charles Donlan, during which he was offered a position as one of the Mercury 7. He remained an officer in the United States Marine Corps after he was selected in 1959. After his selection, he was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group in 1959, which was located at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The task force was moved to Houston in 1962 and became a part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center.

Project Mercury

Main article: Project Mercury

Training

The astronauts trained at Langley. A portion of the training program was dedicated to education, where the astronauts learned topics such as graduate-level introductory space science. The training also consisted of a practical aspect, which included training such as scuba-diving and work in simulators. Astronauts were given an additional role in the spaceflight program to ensure the pilot's had input in the design. Glenn's tole was the cockpit layout design and control functioning, not only for Mercury but also early designs for Apollo. Glenn was also a backup pilot to Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, on the Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7 respectively.

Friendship 7 flight

Main article: Mercury-Atlas 6

Glenn (center) with President John F. Kennedy and General Leighton I. Davis celebrating Glenn's orbital flight, 1962

The flight occurred on February 20, 1962 from Cape Canaveral, later renamed Kennedy Space Center. There were eleven delays during the countdown due to equipment malfunctions, improvements to equipment that was functioning properly, and weather. During Glenn's first orbit, there was a scheduled 30 minute test to see if Glenn could fly the spacecraft manually. This test became significant once a failure of the automatic control system was detected at the end of the first orbit. This forced Glenn to operate in manual mode for the second and third orbits, as well as re-entry.

Later in the flight, telemetry indicated that the heat shield had become loose. If the telemetry was correct, Glenn's spacecraft would likely have been destroyed during re-entry due to the intense heat. Flight controllers had Glenn modify his re-entry procedure by keeping his retrorocket pack on over the shield to help retain it during re-entry. Leaving the retrorocket pack on caused large chunks of flaming debris to fly past the window of the capsule during re-entry, although Glenn thought it could have also been the heat shield. He told an interviewer, "Fortunately it was the rocket pack - or I wouldn't be answering these questions."After the flight, it was determined that the indicator was faulty.

He made his splashdown 800 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral safely after his 4 hour, 55 minute flight. The original procedure called for Glenn to exit through the top hatch, but he was uncomfortably warm and decided that an egress through the side hatch would be faster. During the flight, he endured 7.8 G's of acceleration and traveled a total of 75,679 statute miles at about 17,500 mph.}}

Glenn is honored by President Kennedy at temporary Manned Spacecraft Center facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, three days after his flight

The flight made Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth. This feat made Glenn the third American in space and the fifth human being in space. For Glenn the day became the "best day of his life," while it also renewed America's confidence. His voyage took place while America and the Soviet Union were in the midst of the Cold War and competing in the "Space Race."

As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, met President Kennedy, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, reminiscent of that given for Charles Lindbergh and other great dignitaries. However, he became "so valuable to the nation as an iconic figure," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden, that Kennedy would not "risk putting him back in space again." Glenn's fame and political attributes were noted by the Kennedys, and he became a personal friend of the Kennedy family. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy awarded Glenn with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

In July 1962 Glenn testified before the House Space Committee in favor of excluding women from the NASA astronaut program. Although NASA had no official policy prohibiting women, in practice, the requirement that astronauts had to be military test pilots excluded them entirely.

Resignation

Since Glenn was already 42 years old, it was unlikely that he would be chosen to perform a lunar landing. He resigned from NASA on January 16, 1964, and the next day announced his candidacy as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio. On February 26, 1964, Glenn suffered a concussion from a slip and fall against a bathtub; this led him to withdraw from the race on March 30. Glenn then went on convalescent leave from the Marine Corps until he could make a full recovery, necessary for his retirement from the Marines. He retired on January 1, 1965, as a colonel and entered the business world as an executive for Royal Crown Cola.

Political career

U.S. Senate

NASA psychologists had determined during Glenn's training that he was the astronaut best suited for public life. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy suggested to Glenn and his wife in December 1962 that he should run against incumbent United States Senator Stephen M. Young of Ohio in the 1964 Democratic primary election. In 1964 Glenn announced that he was resigning from the space program to run against Young, but withdrew when he hit his head on a bathtub. Glenn sustained a concussion and injured his inner ear, and recovery left him unable to campaign. Glenn remained close to the Kennedy family and was with Robert Kennedy when he was assassinated in 1968. He served as a pallbearer at Kennedy's funeral.

In 1970, Glenn was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary for nomination for the Senate by fellow Democrat Howard Metzenbaum, by a 51% to 49% margin. Metzenbaum lost the general election race to Robert Taft, Jr. In 1974, Glenn rejected Ohio governor John J. Gilligan and the Ohio Democratic party's demand that he run for Lieutenant Governor. Instead, he challenged Metzenbaum again for the Senate seat vacated by William B. Saxbe (R-OH).

In the primary race, Metzenbaum contrasted his strong business background with Glenn's military and astronaut credentials, saying his opponent had "never held a payroll". Glenn's reply came to be known as the "Gold Star Mothers" speech. He told Metzenbaum to go to a veterans' hospital and "look those men with mangled bodies in the eyes and tell them they didn't hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job." Many felt the "Gold Star Mothers" speech won the primary for Glenn. Glenn won the primary by 54 to 46%. After defeating Metzenbaum, Glenn defeated Ralph Perk, the Republican Mayor of Cleveland, in the general election, beginning a Senate career that would continue until 1999. In 1980, Glenn won re-election to the seat, defeating Republican challenger Jim Betts, by over 40 percentage points.

Metzenbaum would go on to seek a rematch against Taft in 1976, winning a close race on Jimmy Carter's coattails.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Glenn and Metzenbaum had strained relations. There was a thaw in 1983, when Metzenbaum endorsed Glenn for president, and again in 1988, when Metzenbaum was opposed for re-election by Cleveland mayor George Voinovich. Voinovich accused Metzenbaum of being soft on child pornography. Voinovich's charges were criticized by many, including Glenn, who now came to Metzenbaum's aid, recording a statement for television rebutting Voinovich's charges. Metzenbaum won the election by 57% to 41%. In 1986, Glenn defeated challenger U.S. Representative Tom Kindness. In 1997, Glenn announced that he would retire from the Senate at the end of his then-current term.

Savings and loan scandal

Glenn was one of the five U.S. senators caught up in the Lincoln Savings and Keating Five Scandal after accepting a $200,000 contribution from Charles Keating. Glenn and Republican senator John McCain were the only senators exonerated. The Senate Commission found that Glenn had exercised "poor judgment". The association of his name with the scandal gave Republicans hope that he would be vulnerable in the 1992 campaign. Instead, Glenn defeated Lieutenant Governor Mike DeWine to keep his seat.

Presidential politics

In 1976, Glenn was a candidate for the Democratic vice presidential nomination. However, Glenn's keynote address at the Democratic National Convention failed to impress the delegates and the nomination went to veteran politician Walter Mondale. Glenn also ran for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

Glenn and his staff worried about the 1983 release of The Right Stuff, a film about the original seven Mercury astronauts based on the best-selling Tom Wolfe book of the same name. The book had depicted Glenn as a "zealous moralizer", and he did not attend the film's Washington premiere on October 16, 1983. Reviewers saw Ed Harris' portrayal of Glenn as heroic, however, and his staff immediately began to emphasize the film to the press. Aide Greg Schneiders suggested an unusual strategy, similar to Glenn's personal campaign and voting style, in which he would avoid appealing to narrow special interest groups and instead seek to win support from ordinary Democratic primary voters, the "constituency of the whole". Mondale defeated Glenn for the nomination however, and he was left with $3 million in campaign debt for over 20 years before he was granted a reprieve by the Federal Election Commission. He was a potential vice presidential running mate in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

Issues

During Glenn's time in the Senate, he was chief author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, served as chairman of the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1987 until 1995, sat on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees and the Special Committee on Aging.

Once Republicans regained control of the Senate, Glenn served as the ranking minority member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Maine senator Susan Collins, that looked into illegal foreign donations by China to U.S. political campaigns for the 1996 election. There was considerable acrimony between Glenn and the overseeing committee chair, Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Return to space

Main article: STS-95

Senator-astronaut John Glenn on the shuttle Discovery, 1998

Glenn returned to space on the Space Shuttle on October 29, 1998, as a Payload Specialist on Discovery's STS-95 mission, becoming, at age 77, the oldest person to go into space. According to The New York Times, Glenn "won his seat on the Shuttle flight by lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies", which were named as the main reasons for his participation in the mission. Shortly before the flight, researchers learned that Glenn had to be disqualified from one of the flight's two main priority human experiments (about the effects of melatonin) because he did not meet one of the study's medical conditions; he still participated in two other experiments about sleep monitoring and protein use.

Glenn states in his memoir that he had no idea NASA was willing to send him back into space when NASA announced the decision. His participation in the nine-day mission was criticized by some in the space community as a political favor granted to Glenn by President Clinton, with John Pike, director of the Space Policy Project for the Federation of American Scientists noting "If he was a normal person, he would acknowledge he's a great American hero and that he should get to fly on the shuttle for free...He's too modest for that, and so he's got to have this medical research reason. It's got nothing to do with medicine."

In a 2012 interview, Glenn said that the purpose of his flight was "to make measurements and do research on me at the age of 77 [...] comparing the results on me in space with the younger [astronauts] and maybe get [insights] on the immune system or protein turnover or vestibular functions and other things — heart changes. He regretted that NASA did not follow up on this research about aging by sending more people from this age range into space.

Upon the safe return of the STS-95 crew, Glenn (and his crewmates) received another ticker-tape parade, making him the tenth, and latest, person to have received multiple ticker-tape parades in a lifetime (as opposed to that of a sports team). Just prior to the flight, on October 15, 1998, and for several months after, the main causeway to the Johnson Space Center, NASA Road 1, was temporarily renamed "John Glenn Parkway".

In 2001, Glenn vehemently opposed the sending of Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, to the International Space Station on the grounds that Tito's trip served no scientific purpose.

Public affairs institute

Glenn helped found the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at The Ohio State University in 1998 to encourage public service. On July 22, 2006, the institute merged with OSU's School of Public Policy and Management to become the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, and Glenn held an adjunct professorship at the Glenn School. In February 2015, it was announced that the School would become the John Glenn College of Public Affairs beginning in April 2015.

Personal life

Glenn and his wife Anna in 1965

On April 6, 1943, Glenn married his high school sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor (b. 1920). Both Glenn and his wife attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he was a member of the Stag Club Fraternity. Together, they had two children, John David and Carolyn Ann, and two grandchildren. They remained married for 73 years, until his death. His NASA friend Charles Bolden saw Glenn's marriage as an inspiration:

For anyone who's contemplating marriage, you ought to go to school on the Glenns, because they can teach us a lot about what unending love, with undying respect and admiration for each other means...There was never a question whether Annie was the love of his life.

His boyhood home in New Concord has been restored and made into an historic house museum and education center.

A Freemason, Glenn was a member of Concord Lodge # 688 New Concord, Ohio, and DeMolay International, the Masonic youth organization, and was an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church.

He set an example of someone whose faith began before he became an astronaut, and whose faith was reinforced after traveling in space.

"To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible," said Glenn, after his second and final space voyage. He stated that he saw no contradiction between believing in God and the knowledge that evolution is "a fact", and that he believed evolution should be taught in schools. He explained:

I don't see that I'm any less religious that I can appreciate the fact that science just records that we change with evolution and time, and that's a fact. It doesn't mean it's less wondrous and it doesn't mean that there can't be some power greater than any of us that has been behind and is behind whatever is going on.

Glenn was one of the original owners of a Holiday Inn franchise near Orlando, Florida, that is today known as the Seralago Hotel & Suites Main Gate East. His business partner was Henri Landwirth, a Holocaust survivor, who became Glenn's "best friend." Glenn recalls learning about Landwirth's background:

Henri doesn't talk about it much. It was years before he spoke about it with me and then only because of an accident. We were down in Florida during the space program. Everyone was wearing short-sleeved Ban-Lon shirts—everyone but Henri. Then one day I saw Henri at the pool and noticed the number on his arm. I told Henri that if it were me I'd wear that number like a medal with a spotlight on it.

Public appearances and ceremonies

Glenn appears with President Kennedy and Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov, 1962

Glenn was an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics; a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Marine Corps Aviation Association, Order of Daedalians, National Space Club Board of Trustees, National Space Society Board of Governors, International Association of Holiday Inns, Ohio Democratic Party, State Democratic Executive Committee, Franklin County (Ohio) Democratic Party, and 10th District (Ohio) Democratic Action Club.

In 2001, Glenn appeared as a guest star on the American television sitcom Frasier, as himself.

On September 5, 2009, John and Annie Glenn dotted the "i" during The Ohio State University's Script Ohio marching band performance, at the Ohio State–Navy football game halftime show. Other non-band members to have received this honor include Bob Hope, Woody Hayes, Jack Nicklaus and Earle Bruce.

On February 20, 2012, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Friendship 7 flight, Glenn was surprised with the opportunity to speak with the orbiting crew of the International Space Station while Glenn was on-stage with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at The Ohio State University, where the public affairs school is named for him.

Senator John Glenn at the ceremony transferring the Space Shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution.

On April 19, 2012, Glenn participated in the ceremonial transfer of the retired Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA to the Smithsonian Institution for permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Speaking at the event, Glenn criticized the "unfortunate" decision to end the Space Shuttle program, expressing his opinion that grounding the shuttles delayed research.

In June 2016 the Columbus, Ohio airport known for many years as Port Columbus was officially renamed the John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Just before his 95th birthday, Glenn and his wife Annie attended the ceremony, and he spoke about how visiting that airport as a child inspired his interest in flying.

Illness and death

In June 2014, Glenn underwent a successful heart valve replacement surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

At the beginning of December 2016, Glenn was hospitalized at the James Cancer Hospital of OSU Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. A family source said that Glenn had been in declining health, and that his condition was grave. His wife, Annie, and their children and grandchildren had joined him at the hospital.

Glenn died December 8, 2016, at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. No cause of death has yet been disclosed. Glenn will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Mershon Auditorium at The Ohio State University.

Tributes

Glenn looks into a celestial training device before his 1962 launch.

Among those honoring Glenn were President Barack Obama, who said that Glenn, "the first American to orbit the Earth, reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together." Tributes were also given by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President-elect Donald Trump.

The phrase "Godspeed," that hailed Glenn's historic launch into space, became a social media hashtag #Godspeedjohnglenn. Past and current astronauts added their own tributes, along with NASA Administrator and former shuttle astronaut, Charles Bolden, who added that "John Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching." President Obama has ordered all flags half staff until his interment.

Image gallery

• 
  Glenn at the Mercury Control Center on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base
• 
  Medical debriefing of Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC after orbital flight of Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CVS-15). The debrief team for Glenn (center) was led by Commander Seldon C. "Smokey" Dunn, MC, USN (FS) (RAM-qualified) (far right w/EKG in hands).
• 
  "Best regards and many thanks for all the help, 'Smokey'
  John H. Glenn Jr
  Mercury Astronaut
  a good date -- 20 February 62"
• 
  Plaque near Mercury launch pad

Awards and honors

Naval Aviator Astronaut Insignia
Distinguished Flying Cross with stars and clusters denoting, in toto, five additional awards
Air Medal with stars and clusters denoting, in toto, 17 additional awards	Presidential Unit Citation	Navy Unit Commendation
Presidential Medal of Freedom	Congressional Space Medal of Honor	NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Space Flight Medal	Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal	China Service Medal
American Campaign Medal	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two stars	World War II Victory Medal
Navy Occupation Service Medal	National Defense Service Medal with one star	Korean Service Medal with two stars
Presidential Unit Citation (Korea)	United Nations Korea Medal	Korean War Service Medal

• Congressional Gold Medal
• The Woodrow Wilson Award
• National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, 1962
• John J. Montgomery Award, 1963
• General Thomas D. White National Defense Award.
• Ambassador of Space Exploration Award

Director Mark K. Updegrove with John Glenn at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2012

Quincy Jones presents platinum copies of "Fly Me to the Moon" (from It Might as Well Be Swing) to Senator John Glenn (left) and Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong (right)

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio, is named after him. Also, Senator John Glenn Highway runs along a stretch of I-480 in Ohio across from the NASA Glenn Research Center. Colonel Glenn Highway, which runs by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio, John Glenn High School in his hometown of New Concord, Ohio, and Col. John Glenn Elementary in Seven Hills, Ohio, are named for him as well. High Schools in Westland and Bay City, Michigan; Walkerton, Indiana; San Angelo, Texas; Elwood, Long Island, New York; and Norwalk, California were also named after him.

The fireboat John H. Glenn Jr. was named for him. This fireboat is operated by the DCFD and protects the sections of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River that run through Washington, D.C.

The USNS John Glenn (T-MLP-2), a mobile landing platform that was delivered to the U.S. Navy on March 12, 2014, is named for him. It was christened February 1, 2014, in San Diego at General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company.

In 1961, Glenn received an Honorary LL.D from Muskingum University, the college he had attended before joining the military in World War II. He received Honorary Doctorates from Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, and New Hampshire College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Glenn was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976. Glenn was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1977.

In 1990, Glenn was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

In 2000, Glenn received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

In 2004, Glenn was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution.

In 2009, Glenn received an Honorary LL.D from Williams College, and in 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Ohio Northern University.

In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Glenn No. 26 on their "51 Heroes of Aviation" list.

On September 12, 2016, Blue Origin announced a new rocket named after Glenn, the New Glenn.

See also

• List of spaceflight records
• The John Glenn Story, a 1962 documentary film
• Project Mercury Commemorative stamp

Further reading

• Fenno, Richard F., Jr. (1990). The Presidential Odyssey of John Glenn. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. ISBN 978-0-87187-567-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Glenn, John H.; Taylor, Nick (2000). John Glenn: A Memoir. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-58157-7.
• Mersky, Peter B. (1983). U.S. Marine Corps Aviation — 1912 to the present. Annapolis, Maryland: The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America. ISBN 978-0-933852-39-6.
• Shettle Jr., M. L. (2001). United States Marine Corps Air Stations of World War II. Bowersville, Georgia: Schaertel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9643388-2-1.

External links

• United States Congress. "John Glenn (id: G000236)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "COLONEL JOHN H. GLENN, JR., USMC(RETIRED)". Who's Who in Marine Corps History. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
• John Glenn: A Journey, nasa.gov
• John & Annie Glenn Historic Site and Home
• John Glenn profile, glennschool.osu.edu
• John Glenn's Flight on Friendship 7, MA-6 – as heard on KCBS Radio at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)
• John Glenn's Flight on Friendship 7, MA-6 – complete 5-hour capsule audio recording
• John Glenn's Flight on the Space Shuttle, STS-95
• Iven C. Kincheloe Award winners
• John Glenn IMDb profile
• John Glenn profile, National Aviation Hall of Fame website
• Biodata, Astronautix.com
• John Glenn: A Life of Service, pbs.org
• Obituary: John Glenn bbc.co.uk