posted 07-18-2011 03:43 AM               

NASA Sends Birthday Wishes To John Glenn

NASA commemorates the 90th birthday of astronaut John Glenn. The pioneering explorer was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth and also was the oldest person to fly to space when he launched on the space shuttle in 1998.

"John Glenn is a legend, and NASA sends him our best wishes on this major personal milestone," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "John's legacy and contributions to the continued progress of human spaceflight are immense. His example is one we continue to emulate as we push toward farther destinations in the solar system."

After a distinguished flying career with the Marines in World War II and Korea, Glenn joined NASA in 1959 as one of the country's first astronauts in Project Mercury. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the first U.S. manned orbital mission. He launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to successfully complete three orbits of the Earth.

Glenn flew to space again on the the STS-95 mission in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. As a mission specialist, Glenn supported deployment of a variety of research payloads and participated in investigations about spaceflight and the aging process.

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  A man who put the world in his orbit

  Today the face is still as round as the sun, the smile still as broad as his Midwest accent. Glenn still walks briskly, still exudes an infectious optimism from behind gold aviator glasses. Last month he flew his Beechcraft Baron between Washington and Columbus, Ohio. Next winter his wife, Annie, 91 and recovering from knee-replacement surgery, plans to ski. The two plan to drive across the country in the fall.

  "I'd rather burn out," he says in his office in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University, "than rust out."

• Plain Dealer
  John Glenn turns 90: An appreciation

  John Glenn -- World War II veteran, the first American to orbit the Earth and Ohio's U.S. senator for 24 years -- turns 90 today.

  He seems unmoved by the milestone.

  "Well, you know what they say," he said from his hospital room, where he is recovering from knee surgery. "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."

• LIFE Magazine
  John Glenn: Unpublished Photos

  Here, on the occasion of his 90th birthday (July 18), LIFE.com presents unpublished photos of the first American to orbit the earth; the decorated Marine Corps veteran (WWII and Korea); and the earnest, novice politician, taken by LIFE photographers during one of the most thrilling, inspiring, nerve-wracking eras in the nation's history: the Space Race.

posted 07-18-2011 12:53 PM               

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Originally posted by DChudwin:
Happy birthday to a hero of mine! John Glenn has excelled in so many areas and he has been so generous of his time (and his autograph) that he is one of a kind.

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