Quick Facts
- NAME: John Herschel Glenn
- OCCUPATION: Astronaut, Military Leader, Pilot, U.S. Representative
- BIRTH DATE: July 18, 1921 (Age: 90)
- EDUCATION: Muskingum College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Cambridge, Ohio
- ZODIAC SIGN: Cancer
Best Known For
John Glenn was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. He has also served as an Ohio senator.
John Glenn. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 11:05, Feb 09, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269
John Glenn [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269, February 09
" John Glenn." 2012. Biography.com 09 Feb 2012, 11:05 http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269
' John Glenn', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269 [accessed Feb 09, 2012]
" John Glenn," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269 (accessed Feb 09, 2012).
John Glenn [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 09]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269.
John Glenn, http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
John Glenn, http://www.biography.com/people/john-glenn-9313269 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Synopsis
Profile
(born July 18, 1921, Cambridge, Ohio, U.S.) the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. (Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, the first person in space, had made a single orbit of Earth in 1961).Glenn joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 and flew 59 missions during World War II and 90 missions during the Korean War. He was a test pilot from 1954 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1959. Of the seven U.S. military pilots selected in that year for Project Mercury astronaut training, he was the oldest. Glenn served as a backup pilot for Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Virgil I. Grissom, who made the first two U.S. suborbital flights into space. Glenn was selected for the first orbital flight, and on February 20, 1962, his space capsule,
Glenn retired from the space program and the Marine Corps in 1964 to enter private business and to pursue his interest in politics. In 1970 he sought the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio but lost narrowly in the primary. He was elected U.S. senator from that state in 1974 and was reelected three times thereafter. Glenn was unsuccessful, however, in his bid to become the 1984 Democratic presidential candidate.
On October 29, 1998, Glenn returned to space as a payload specialist on a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle
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