John Glenn was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the earth. John Glenn was an Officer of United States Marines with the rank of Major before chosen to become part of the Mercury 7 program. He was awarded five Distinguished Flying Crosses. Made record setting Coast to Coast flights in the late 1950s. He named his spacecraft (capsule) Friendship 7 and it is on display at the Smithsonian Institute Air and Space. After his retirement from NASA, he served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from the state of Ohio. In 1998, he flew into space again, this time at age 77.
