JOHN HERSCHEL GLENN, JR. (COLONEL, USMC, RET.) 

NASA ASTRONAUT (DECEASED)

PERSONAL DATA: Born July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. Died on December 8, 

2016. He is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren. 

EDUCATION: Glenn attended primary and secondary schools in New Concord, Ohio. 

He attended Muskingum College in New Concord and received a Bachelor of Science 

degree in Engineering. Muskingum College also awarded him an honorary Doctor of 

Science degree in engineering. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from nine 

colleges or universities.

SPECIAL HONORS: Glenn has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on six 

occasions, and holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his service during World War 

II and Korea. Glenn also holds the Navy Unit Commendation for service in Korea, the 

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the World War II 

Victory Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the 

Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Navy’s Astronaut Wings, 

the Marine Corps’ Astronaut Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

EXPERIENCE: He entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March 1942 and was graduated from this program and 

commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. After advanced training, he joined Marine Fighter Squadron 155 and spent a year 

flying F-4U fighters in the Marshall Islands.

During his World War II service, he flew 59 combat missions. After the war, he was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 218 

on the North China patrol and served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950 Glenn was an instructor in advanced flight 

training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico, Virginia. In Korea he flew 63 

missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the in F-86 

Sabrejet. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea Glenn downed three MIG’s in combat along the Yalu River.

After Korea, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. After graduation, he was 

project officer on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (now

Bureau of Naval Weapons) in Washington from November 1956 to April 1959, during which time he also attended the 

University of Maryland.

In July 1957, while project officer of the F8U Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York, 

spanning the country in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. Glenn has 

nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, with approximately 3,000 hours in jet aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Glenn was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, 

in April 1959 after his selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut. The Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became part 

of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1962. Glenn flew on Mercury-6 (February 20, 1962) and STS-95 (October 29 to 

November 7, 1998), and has logged over 218 hours in space. Prior to his first flight, Glenn had served as backup pilot for 

Astronauts Shepard and Grissom. When astronauts were given special assignments to ensure pilot input into the design and 

development of spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout and control functioning, including some of the early designs for 

the Apollo Project. Glenn resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center on January 16, 1964. He was promoted to the rank of 

Colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 1965. He was a business executive from 1965 until his 

election to the United States Senate in November 1974. Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999. 

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

December 2016

Biographical Data

 Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

 Houston, Texas 77058
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: On February 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 “Friendship 7” spacecraft on the 

first manned orbital mission of the United States. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, he completed a successful 

three-orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of approximately 162 statute miles and an orbital 

velocity of approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Glenn’s “Friendship 7” Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles 

southeast of KSC in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island. Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 

seconds.

STS-95 Discovery (October 29 to November 7, 1998) was a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research 

payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test 

Platform, and investigations on space flight and the aging process. The mission was accomplished in 134 Earth orbits, traveling 

3.6 million miles in 213 hours and 44 minutes.

This is the only version available from NASA.