![]() John Glenn became the oldest man to fly in space by serving as a payload specialist on STS-95 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. partly beacuse John Glenn launched from here to become the first American to orbit. On October 29, 1998, the first American to orbit the Earth made history again. The American, Russian and Frenchman on board will be joined Thursday by another American and Russian who will take off from Kazakhstan. This is not a place you want to be standing when a rocket launches. Three astronauts currently are at the outpost, which is orbiting 250 miles (402.32 kilometers) high. “Looks like we nailed the orbit once again,” said Vern Thorp, a manager for the rocket maker. In October 1998, at the age of 77, he spent nine days aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person ever to travel to the final frontier. A new, larger greenhouse is flying up, along with equipment needed for a spacewalk next month. But it opted for the United Launch Alliance’s bigger Atlas V rocket in order to carry up a heftier load. Orbital ATK - one of NASA’s prime delivery services for the space station, along with SpaceX - normally uses its own Virginia-based Antares rockets to launch its Cygnus cargo ships, named after the swan constellation. ![]() The countdown proceeded to T-9 minutes, but was held an additional 8.5 minutes while the launch team discussed the status of a master alarm heard during. Because the launch was delayed a month by hydraulic problems at the pad and on the rocket, no Glenn family members were able to make it to Cape Canaveral, according to Culbertson. At 12:30 p.m., the hatch was closed with crew inside the space shuttle Discovery, just as President Bill Clinton's Air Force One plane touched down at the Cape Canaveral Air Station skid strip. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. ![]() “It’s a great tribute to John to be able to take his name to orbit once again,” said Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut who now heads Orbital ATK’s space systems group.īesides supplies, the capsule contains a banner showing Glenn in his orange space shuttle launch suit - it’s the first thing the station astronauts will see when they open the craft - as well as memorabilia for his family. was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician.
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