Item Description: |
Includes index. |
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Physical Description: |
422 p.: ill. |
ISBN: |
0553110748 |
Author Notes: |
He was selected as an original Mercury 7 astronaut. On February 20, 1962, he became the first American to orbit Earth. President John F. Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident and suggested that NASA not give him a new flight assignment. Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964. He became an executive of the Royal Crown Cola Company. In 1974, he became a Democratic senator from Ohio and went on to serve four full terms. As a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, he developed the medical rationale used in arguing his case for a return flight in space. On October 29, 1998, he became the oldest person to go into space at the age of 77. His memoir, John Glenn: A Memoir was written with Nick Taylor and published in 1999. During his lifetime, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He died on December 8, 2016 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) |