JOHN GLENN

John Glenn was an astronaut and U.S. Senator from the 1974 to 1999. He is best known as having been one of the seven original Mercury program astronauts. He became the fifth person in space, the third American in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, circling the globe three times during a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. He also has the distinction of being the oldest person to go into space when he boarded Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998! Glenn passed away in 2016 at the age of 95.