Astronaut John Glenn pilots the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft during his historic 1962 flight as the first American to orbit the Earth.
Marine pilot Maj. John H. Glenn Jr. prepares to step down from the F8UI Crusader at Floyd Bennet Field on July 16, 1957 after making the first non-stop supersonic flight from Los Angeles to New York. Glenn landed 3 hours, 23 minutes, 8.4 seconds after departure from Los Alamitos Naval air station in Ca., breaking the previous record set in 1955 by an F84F.
Astronauts Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Virgil I. Grissom in May 1961. Associated Press
Senator John H. Glenn, 76, the world's oldest astronaut during an October 1962 mission on Discovery, was the first American to orbit the Earth 36-years-ago.
NASA's Mercury astronaut, John Glenn sits inside the training capsule, Jan. 11, 1961, in preparation for manned space flight.
Astronaut John Glenn shown, Sept. 16, 1960, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn, in a space flight suit, sits in a cradle inside a Mercury capsule procedures trainer as he shows how the first U.S. astronaut will ride through space. Glenn reaches for some of the controls which fill the capsule. The demonstration was held at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research Center in Virginia on Jan. 11, 1961.
Astronaut John Glenn gets some help suiting up from an unidentified NASA technician at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 20, 1962.
Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. waves as he walks from his living quarters to a transfer van at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Jan. 27, 1962. The van took him to the launching pad where he was to start his orbital flight. The launch was postponed because of inclement weather.
John Glenn poses before a Project Mercury tracking station at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 18, 1963. Associated Press
The original seven Mercury astronauts are shown during training at NASA Langley Research Center in March 1961 in their flight suits. From left, Lt. M. Scott Carpenter, Capt. Gordon Cooper, Col. John H. Glenn Jr., Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Lt. Comdr. Walter Schirra, Lt. Comdr. Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Capt. Donald K. "Deke" Slayton.
Presidential candidate, Ohio Senator, John Glenn gestures as he speaks to reporters during a news conference at a downtown Richmond Hotel in 1984.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, waves as he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building Thursday morning Oct. 29, 1998 at Kennedy Space Center. Glenn, Commander Curt Brown, front, and five other crew members were on their way to Launch Pad 39-B and a planned liftoff on the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Astronaut John Glenn waves to people looking down from buildings as he and his wife, Annie, ride in an open car during a ticker tape parade down New York's "Canyon of Heroes." Crowds of cheering people lined Broadway to cheer Glenn and the rest of the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, 36 years after New York staged it's first parade for the heroic astronaut. Glenn recently became the oldest man to fly on the space shuttle at the age of 77. Driving the car was a police officer whose father drove Glenn during his first ticker tape parade in 1962.
STS-95 Payload Specialist John Glenn positions himself to take photos from the Space Shuttle Discovery's aft flight deck windows on Flight Day 3 in this NASA handout image dated Oct. 31, 1998.
President Barack Obama awards a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom to astronaut and former U.S. Senator John Glenn during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.
John Glenn attends a 2004 rally for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in Elryia, Ohio.
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