John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth (1962) and the first senior citizen to fly into space (1998), died in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday. He was 95. “Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra,” the United States’ National Aeronautic Space Agency said on Twitter after his passing.
The space legend had recently been admitted to the James Cancer Center, but the Ohio State University, which announced his death, said that did not mean he had cancer, The New York Times reported. In 2014, he had undergone a heart-valve replacement surgery after suffering a stroke around that time.
Glenn was among the military pilots who were chosen as part of the “Original Seven,” which was the first batch of US astronauts in 1959. Their story was retold in the classic movie The Right Stuff. Before he joined NASA, he was a fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War.
After Glenn’s space mission, which took place during the Cold War, he was described as a “national catharsis unparalleled”, in author Walter A McDougall’s The Heavens and the Earth.
After his space adventures, Glenn served in the US Senate for 24 years. United States President Barack Obama paid tribute to the aviation hero, saying, “With John’s passing, our nation has lost an icon, and Michelle [Obama] and I have lost a friend...On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn.”
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