Space pioneer John Glenn: Still the right stuff at age 90

By Marco Mierke Jul 15, 2011, 2:26 GMT

Washington - One can hardly hope to achieve in a lifetime more than John Glenn has: a legend among astronauts, a top politician and still very fit as he turns 90 on Monday.

He became famous in 1962 as the first American in orbit. He again made headlines 36 years later as the oldest astronaut in history.

Son of a railway guard from Ohio, this 'national hero' still has no interest in looking back on his achievements in life, not even for a milestone birthday.

It was before colour television, much less the internet, and The Beatles were not yet superstars: On February 20, 1962, the 40-year-old Glenn squeezed into the tiny Friendship 7 Mercury capsule, perched atop an Atlas rocket, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

He took barely five hours to orbit the planet. It could have been enough to retire and rest on his laurels, but not for Glenn.

He had studied mathematics in college and joined the Marines as an aviation cadet in 1942. By the end of World War II, he had flown some 60 combat missions in the Pacific. He flew in combat again during the Korean War.

Glenn was regarded as one of the most successful pilot of his time, and received scores of medals and decorations.

Later, he became a test pilot before joining the space programme.

However, he was not happy about becoming the third, rather than the first, US citizen to travel to space. The greater honour went to Alan Shepard, who spent a few seconds in zero gravity after being launched in a Mercury capsule. Word has it that Glenn himself lost the pole position in a fit of righteous anger.

The myth says that, in 1961, this Calvinist harshly called upon his fellow astronauts not to run after every woman they saw, because such behaviour could damage the reputation of the entire space programme. His angry colleagues apparently then voted against having Glenn become the first or second US citizen in space.

Glenn was to draw satisfaction from a later record. He became the oldest astronaut to travel to space on October 29, 1998, before the eyes of millions of fascinated colour-television spectators, aboard the shuttle Discovery on a nine-day mission, which the 77-year-old withstood without any problems.

NASA claimed that his trip had a scientific purpose. Critics, however, spoke of a pure publicity stunt for an organization that was ailing. Glenn himself said that he had sought to prove 'that senior citizens could one day vacation in space.'

Over the years that passed between his space flights, he was a successful politician. In 1974, his fame launched Glenn into the US Senate, and he held a seat there for close to a quarter of a century.

But he also suffered bitter defeats in politics. In 1976, he was passed over as Jimmy Carter's vice presidential candidate. In 1984, Glenn made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Through it all, he has been married to his wife, Anna Margaret, for almost seven decades.

Glenn still lifts weights and plays golf, and looks as if he could again fly into space on the Friendship 7. And he probably would if he got the chance.