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John Glenn, Jr. Biography
Astronaut / U.S. Senator
John Glenn, Jr. circled Earth on the Mercury 6 space mission in 1962, becoming the first American to make a complete Earth orbit. Glenn was a fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War. He became one of America's original seven Mercury astronauts and orbited Earth three times on 20 February 1962 in the capsule Friendship 7. (Alan Shepard had been the first American astronaut in space in 1961, but Glenn was the first American to circle the globe. The first man into space overall was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.) Glenn was elected senator from Ohio in 1974, serving until 1998, and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. He returned to orbit in late 1998, joining the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in a mission that became a nostalgic salute to a space pioneer.
Extra credit: Glenn attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, earning a bachelor's degree in engineering.
Other astronauts of the 20th century include Alan Shepard, Sally Ride, Neil Armstrong and Ham the Chimp.
Blog posts mentioning John Glenn, Jr.:
Four Good Links
John Glenn: Return to Space
CNN feature on Glenn's 1998 voyage at the age of 77
Teen Ink Interview
From 2000, a swell chat with Glenn about history and curiosity
Astronaut Bio: John Glenn, Jr.
The direct data from NASA
The Mercury Project
The Kennedy Space Center's very detailed history of Glenn's program
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
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Best Known As
The first American to orbit Earth