When he announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate last year, he said he was too old for the job. Now here he is romping in space. If that isn't symbolism, I don't know what is. And don't think that symbol was lost on Bill Clinton, interim president of the United States, who was in attendance at the launch. Ostensibly, Glenn is up there having experiments conducted on him about aging.
Scientists already know that prolonged time in space causes the body to age.
One of the theories Glenn is testing is that an older person might not show as much aging as a younger person. But if that theory proves wrong, and aging is accelerated, next week Glenn could come back looking like Gabby Hayes. There's a series of experiments tailored to see how an older person can function in space. You have to get up every 20 minutes to go tinkle. NASA assures us that the senator's duties and responsibilities are the same as all the other astronauts, even though they are 35 and 40 years younger than he is.