Few aviation pioneers were as long lived as John Glenn, the astronaut and former senator who passed at 95 years of age in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday afternoon. He was surrounded by family (including Annie, his wife of 73 years), reports the Columbus Dispatch. Glenn was a Marine Corps pilot who flew a combined 149 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War, but his achievements beyond Earth’s atmosphere earned him his place in history. In 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. In 1998, at 77 years old, he became the oldest person to travel into space, working as part of the crew for the Space Shuttle Discovery.
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