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.

John Glenn became an astronaut in 1959.

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

Glenn left NASA in 1964. He became a U.S. Senator for Ohio in 1974. He participated in a final mission in 1998 at the age of 77. It studied the aging process.