With the passing on Thursday of John Glenn, the first seven American astronauts chosen to lead the fledging US space program in 1959 are now dead, ending a groundbreaking chapter in American history.
This crew of military aviators, known as the Original Seven, or “Mercury 7,” proved that spaceflight was possible, and paved the way for the pioneering US trips to the moon. Their saga inspired the 1979 Tom Wolfe book “The Right Stuff,” and the 1983 movie classic of the same name.
John Glenn died in Ohio on Thursday, aged 95. It was announced Wednesday that Glenn had been hospitalized “more than a week ago,” according to Ohio State University spokesman Hank Wilson. He was at the James Cancer Hospital at the Ohio State University, but his illness was not disclosed. Glenn had heart valve replacement surgery in 2014.
Mercury 7
President Barack Obama released a statement paying tribute to Glenn. ‘We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn’.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. made history in 1962 when he completed a three-orbit flight in a cramped space capsule dubbed Friendship 7. He later served for nearly a quarter century as a US senator. In 1998, he returned to space at age 77, becoming the oldest person to ever do so.
Glenn was born in small eastern Ohio town of Cambridge on July 18, 1921. Glenn flew 149 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War. In the final nine days of the Korean War, Glenn shot down three MiG fighter jets along the Yalu River. His military service earned him numerous awards, including six Distinguished Flying Crosses.
After Korea, Glenn became a test pilot for naval and Marine aircraft and, in 1957, set the transcontinental air speed record. He flew a Vought F-8 Crusader from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes — the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed.
He volunteered when NASA requested pilots for its suborbital and orbital programs, and in 1959 he and six others — Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Deke Slayton — were selected as the first astronauts, known as the “Mercury 7.”
Glenn won election into the US Senate as a Democrat in 1974 and he served for 24 years. On October 29, 1998, Glenn became the oldest human ever to venture into space, and his flight proved once again that he was a man who embraced a challenge.
Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, Annie; his two children, John David and Carolyn Ann (Lyn); and two grandchildren.
