Tonight I am remembering John Glenn who passed away today at the age of 95.

In February it will be 55 years since John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.

John Glenn was already a highly decorated pilot in the United States Marine Corps when Friendship 7 launched him into the hearts of the American public.

John Glenn was one of The Mercury Seven which was the first group of astronauts chosen. Glenn had been the last surviving member of the group since Scott Carpenter passed away in 2013.

I have newspaper clippings from when Glenn made his first flight. My Grandma saved many news articles in her scrapbooks and I am glad that this was one that she saved.

John Glenn was also the oldest person to go into space when he flew on the Space Shuttle in 1998 at the age of 77.

After retiring from NASA John Glenn ran for Senator of Ohio. It took him 10 years before he was finally elected, but he then served for four terms. Now that I think about it, he represented me as a Senator when I lived in Ohio for a very short time in the early 90’s.

I am now going to go to my stacks and find this book that was written by the Mercury Seven astronauts. I want to read some of what John Glenn wrote.

Click on We Seven for more information about the book.

When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut and John Glenn was one of my heroes. It was sad to hear of his passing today.

Steven