The nation said farewell to one of the most distinguished people in America's history on Thursday, December 8, as it was announced that astronaut John Glenn has passed away.
As a member of the legendary Mercury Seven, Glenn would become a seminal figure in NASA's space travel program, when in 1959 he was selected along with Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, to became the first team of Americans to leave Earth. When Russian astronaut Yuri A. Gagarin beat Alan Shepard to space with the USSR's launching of it's Vostok 1 one month prior to the U.S. launching of the Freedom 7 in 1961, many viewed it as a sign of strength for the USSR amid the Cold War. In August of that year, Gherman S. Titov helped further the Russians' claim to space superiority, when he orbited the Earth 17 times prior to the U.S. having accomplished the feat once. It was then that Glenn, a U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel known up until that point for being a decorated WWII and Korean War fighter pilot, was tapped to make America's first orbit around the planet in 1962. Prior to making history on the international stage, he had already cemented his place in the nation's history as the first pilot to steer a non-stop, cross-country flight from Los Angeles to New York.
In 1974 Glenn transcended his historical prominence as an aviator and astronaut when he was elected to Ohio's senate, where he'd serve until 1999. But he wasn't done making history beyond Earth's atmosphere, returning to become the oldest human in outer space when he took on a mission while still serving on the Senate in 1998. Glenn would live to be the last surviving member of America's original astronauts. He was 95-years-old.
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