American hero, John Glenn Click on image for full size (44K JPEG) Courtesy of NASA

John Glenn is an American astronaut who was born on July 18,1921, in Ohio. Before he became an astronaut, John Glenn served as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War. He has logged over 5500 hours of flight time.

John Glenn became an astronaut in 1959. He has spent almost 219 hours in space on two spaceflights.

Glenn became the third American in space in 1962. He flew aboard the Mercury 7 spacecraft, named Friendship 7. He became the most celebrated astronaut of all time.

Glenn left NASA in 1964. He became a U.S. Senator for Ohio in 1974. Glenn was involved in one final mission in 1998 at the age of 77 aboard the shuttle Discovery. The main purpose of his mission was to study the aging process.