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Former astronaut, Sen. John Glenn dies at age 95

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former astronaut and US Sen. John Glenn, 95, has died. NASA tweeted about his death shortly after the announcement: We are saddened by th...
Astronaut John Glenn (R) and his wife Annie wave t
Former astronaut, Sen. John Glenn dies at age 95

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former astronaut and US Sen. John Glenn, 95, has died.

NASA tweeted about his death shortly after the announcement:

Glenn was hospitalized at The James Cancer Hospital “more than a week ago,” Ohio State University spokesman Hank Wilson said on Wednesday, and he died at the hospital. However, in the statement, Wilson said, “I caution that even though Sen. Glenn is at The James that does not necessarily mean he has cancer.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich released a statement just moments after the news of Glenn’s death became public:

Glenn had heart valve replacement surgery in 2014.

He became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.

“Zero-G and I feel fine,” Glenn famously said while in orbit in 1962.

Glenn piloted the Mercury space capsule, dubbed Friendship 7, and circled the planet three times in just under five hours on February 20, 1962. Of the original seven US astronauts who made up Project Mercury — Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton — Glenn is the last surviving member.

Prior to his career as an astronaut, Glenn flew 149 missions as a Marine pilot during World War II and the Korean War and received multiple medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions.

He resigned from the astronaut program in 1964 and pursued a career in politics, serving as a US senator as a Democrat from Ohio between 1974 and 1999. He even ran for president in 1984. But Glenn's time in space wasn't over.

At 77, he became the oldest person to ever travel in space. Glenn was a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery for a nine-day mission in 1998.

"To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible," he said at the time.

"We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves," Glenn said in a keynote address at Ohio State University's commencement in 2009.

In 2011, he received a Congressional Gold Medal alongside Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.

This year, he attended a celebration that saw the renaming of Port Columbus Airport to John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

Glenn was born in Cambridge, Ohio in 1921, and leaves behind his high school sweetheart and wife of more than 70 years, Annie.

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