John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) was the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. He was born in
Cambridge in 1921, receiving his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Muskingum College in
New Concord.
Glenn entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program after graduation in 1942 when WWII was in full swing. In addition to the 59 missions he flew in that war, he also flew 27 missions during the Korean Conflict.
Glenn's historic flight aboard "Friendship 7" covered three laps around the world and took just under 5 hours to complete. In 1998, he set another record for being the oldest human ever to go into space--the mission, observing the Hubble Space Telescope covered nine days, 134 orbits and 3.6 million miles.
After retiring from the Armed Forces, Glenn served 4 terms in the U.S. Senate (beginning in 1974) representing his home state.
