John Glenn, astronaut and US Senator, dies at 95
WASHINGTON — He became a hero as the first American to orbit the Earth and then served as a longtime U.S. senator. But John Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, continued to defy gravity decades after his initial flight.
The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts flew into space again at age 77. To his fellow crewmates on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998, the legend-turned-senator had to be called John. Or else.
“He didn’t want any special treatment as a U.S. Senator,” said crewmate Scott Parazynski. “He said, ‘Don’t call me Senator Glenn. I’m going to ignore you if you call me that. It’s just John. Or it’s payload specialist 2’.”
John Herschel Glenn Jr., who died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them.