At left , the Space Shuttle Discovery waits in darkness on Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B . At right , on Thursday October 29, Discovery blasts through a bright afternoon sky returning Senator John Glenn to space over 36 years after he became the first American in orbit . Paving the way in 1962 Glenn flew solo , but today he is part of a crew of seven astronauts shepherding scientific payloads on shuttle mission STS-95 . Godspeed John Glenn. At age 77, John Glenn , a legend and hero of NASA's first human spaceflight program , has become the oldest space traveler.
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