Former senator John Glenn poses for a portrait shortly after doing live television interviews from the Ohio State University Union building on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio.

Editor's note: John Glenn passed away on Thursday, Dec. 8 at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Former NASA astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, has spent over a week in an Ohio hospital.

Glenn, now 95, was admitted to the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio last week, the Associated Press reports. No information about his condition or diagnosis has been made public at this time. Communications officer Hank Wilson of Ohio State University's John Glenn College of Public Affairs said that Glenn doesn't necessarily have cancer, despite the hospital's title. [Astronaut John Glenn: An American Hero's Monumental Career Remembered]

John Glenn became the first NASA astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962 during his Friendship 7 mission, which was part of NASA's Project Mercury spaceflight program. After retiring from NASA and the U.S. Marine Corps in 1964 and 1965, consecutively, he worked as a business executive until being elected U.S. senator for Ohio in 1974, where he served until 1999. In 1998, Glenn returned to space, setting the record for the oldest space traveler when he flew on the space shuttle Discovery at the age of 77. [Photos: John Glenn, First American in Orbit]

Earlier this year, the Port Columbus International Airport was renamed after Glenn. During a ceremony at the airport, Glenn noted that his eyesight had deteriorated from macular degeneration after a small stroke.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.</s>John Glenn, who became one of the 20th century’s greatest explorers as the first American to orbit Earth and later as the world’s oldest astronaut, in addition to a long career as a U.S. senator, died on Thursday at age of 95.</s>Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn has died in Ohio. He was 95.

Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Hank Wilson with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs says Glenn died Thursday afternoon at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.

Glenn was the third U.S. astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He circled the Earth three times. The Soviet Union had put a man into orbit a year earlier in 1961.

Glenn then spent 24 years as a Democrat from Ohio in the Senate and briefly made a run for president in 1984. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, aboard space shuttle Discovery.

He was the last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.</s>Former astronaut and US senator John Glenn has died aged 95 in Ohio on Thursday. Glenn was the third US astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He then spent 24 years as a Democratic senator from Ohio and briefly made a run for president in 1984
• John Glenn, first US astronaut to orbit Earth, dies aged 95</s>John Glenn - the first American to orbit the Earth - has died in Ohio, aged 95.

Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American astronaut in orbit.

Hank Wilson with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs says Glenn died Thursday afternoon at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.

Glenn was the third U.S. astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He circled the Earth three times. The Soviet Union had put a man into orbit a year earlier in 1961. Glenn then spent 24 years as a Democrat from Ohio in the Senate and briefly made a run for president in 1984. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, aboard shuttle Discovery.</s>Former US astronaut and senator John Glenn died on Thursday at age 95 at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported.

The first American to orbit the Earth and a former US senator and war hero, had been hospitalised for more than a week, an official said on Wednesday.

Glenn, the last surviving member of the original seven “Right Stuff” Mercury astronauts, had a knee replacement operation in 2011 and underwent heart surgery in 2014.

Glenn was credited with reviving US pride after the Soviet Union’s early domination of manned space exploration, as he became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20th, 1962. Reaching speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour, he circled the globe three times in just under five hours in the Friendship 7 capsule.

Glenn instantly became a hero, receiving a ticker-tape parade in New York city and the Space Congressional Medal of Honour from President John F Kennedy. His experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie The Right Stuff, along with the other Mercury pilots.

Glenn also became the oldest astronaut ever, returning to space at the age of 77 on October 29th, 1998.

Before he went into space, Glenn already had a reputation as one of the best test pilots in the country, setting a transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes in July 1957.

It was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. He also earned six distinguished flying crosses and flew more than 150 missions as a fighter pilot in the second World War and the Korean War.

Born in Cambridge, Ohio, Glenn served in the US Senate as a moderate Democrat from Ohio from 1974 to 1999.</s>WASHINGTON — John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics.

Before he gained fame orbiting the world, he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot, he set a transcontinental speed record. He later served 24 years in the Senate from Ohio. A rare setback was a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

His long political career enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery at age 77 in 1998, a cosmic victory lap that he relished and turned into a teachable moment about growing old. He holds the record for the oldest person in space.

[JOHN GLENN IN ARKANSAS: Coverage of 2004 visit to Museum of Discovery]

More than anything, John Glenn was the ultimate and uniquely American space hero: a combat veteran with an easy smile, a strong marriage of 70 years and nerves of steel. Schools, a space center and the Columbus airport were named after him.

The Soviet Union leaped ahead in space exploration by putting the Sputnik 1 satellite in orbit in 1957, and then launched the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in a 108-minute orbital flight on April 12, 1961. After a two suborbital flights by Alan Shepard Jr. and Gus Grissom, it was up to Glenn to be the first American to orbit the Earth.

"Godspeed, John Glenn," fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed just before Glenn thundered off a Cape Canaveral launch pad, now a National Historic Landmark, to a place America had never been. At the time of that Feb. 20, 1962, flight, Glenn was 40 years old.

With the all-business phrase, "Roger, the clock is operating, we're underway," Glenn radioed to Earth as he started his 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds in space. Years later, he explained he said that because he didn't feel like he had lifted off and it was the only way he knew he had launched.</s>John Glenn, 1st US astronaut to orbit Earth who later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, has died at 95</s>U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) (L) pumps his fist into the air with former Senator John Glenn (R) at a rally at the University of Toledo on February 25, 2004 in Toledo, Ohio. Glenn endorsed Kerry for Democratic nominee for president. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Former astronaut and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn (D-OH) is presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room event May 29, 2012 at the White House in Washington, DC. The Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Former Astronaut and former U.S. Senator John Glenn (D-OH), walks past the Space Shuttle Discovery during an event at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center April 19, 2012 in Chantilly, Virginia. The space shuttle Discovery is the he oldest and most traveled vehicle from NASA's space shuttle program, and will replace the Interprise at the museum. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn has died in Ohio. He was 95.

Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Hank Wilson with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs says Glenn died Thursday afternoon at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.

Glenn was the third U.S. astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He circled the Earth three times. The Soviet Union had put a man into orbit a year earlier in 1961.

Glenn then spent 24 years as a Democrat from Ohio in the Senate and briefly made a run for president in 1984. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, aboard space shuttle Discovery.

He was the last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.</s>Former astronaut and US senator John Glenn has died in Ohio aged 95.

Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs says Glenn died Thursday afternoon at the James cancer hospital in Columbus. Ohio governor John Kasich also confirmed the news on Twitter.

Glenn was the third US astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He circled the Earth three times. The Soviet Union had put a man into orbit a year earlier in 1961.

Glenn then spent 24 years as a Democratic senator from Ohio and briefly made a run for president in 1984. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, aboard space shuttle Discovery, making him the oldest person sent into space.



He was the last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.
American astronaut John Glenn dies at the age of 95.