John Glenn Jr.

John Glenn Jr.

Astronaut
Date of Birth: 18.07.1921
Country: USA

Biography of John Glenn

John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, USA. He completed high school in New Concord, Ohio, and went on to study engineering at Muskingum College, where he earned a bachelor's degree. Many years later, Muskingum College awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering.

In 1942, Glenn enlisted in the Army and graduated from the United States Aviation Training Center in Texas in 1943. He served in World War II from 1939 to 1945 as part of the 155th Marine Fighter Squadron based on the Marshall Islands. He flew 59 combat missions during the US military's operations in the Pacific. After the war, he joined the 218th Marine Fighter Squadron on Guam and participated in airspace patrols over northern China.

From July 1948 to December 1950, Glenn worked as an instructor at an aviation base in Texas. He then served in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, first as part of the 311th Marine Fighter Squadron and later with the US Air Force. He completed a total of 90 combat missions and personally shot down three enemy aircraft.

After the Korean War, Glenn transitioned to test pilot work. In 1954, he graduated from the United States Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. He participated in the testing of various types of combat aircraft and accumulated a total of 9,000 flight hours, including approximately 3,000 hours on jet aircraft.

In July 1957, Glenn set a transcontinental flight speed record from Los Angeles, California to New York, New York, in 3 hours and 23 minutes, flying the F8U "Crusader" aircraft. This was the first transcontinental flight made at an average supersonic speed.

In April 1959, Glenn was selected as part of the first group of NASA astronauts, known as the "Mercury Seven." He underwent the complete training program for space flights on Mercury spacecraft. In July 1961, he served as a backup pilot for astronaut Virgil Grissom during a suborbital space flight. On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, completing a 4-hour, 55-minute, and 23-second orbital flight aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft.

After his historic flight, Glenn remained part of the NASA astronaut corps, but the US government imposed a ban on his further spaceflight training to avoid the accidental loss of their national hero. He resigned from NASA on January 16, 1964, and left military service on January 1, 1965, to pursue a career in politics.

In November 1974, Glenn was elected as a senator from the state of Ohio, a position he continues to hold to this day. In 1997, he proposed a return to space to study the effects of weightlessness on the aging human body. In the spring of 1998, NASA approved his proposal, and Glenn began preparations for his second spaceflight.

From October 29 to November 7, 1998, Glenn flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) as a payload specialist alongside astronauts Curtis Brown, Steven Lindsey, Stephen Robinson, Scott Parazynski, Pedro Duque, and Chiaki Mukai. The mission lasted 8 days, 21 hours, 43 minutes, and 57 seconds. Glenn handled the flight well, and his total spaceflight time amounted to 9 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes, and 20 seconds.

Glenn is an honorary member of the International Astronautical Federation and has been awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, numerous other American medals, as well as awards from South Korea and the United Nations. He is married to Anna Margaret Castor and has two adult children and two grandchildren.

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