29 October 1998

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Senator John H. Glenn, Jr., 1998. (NASA)

29 October 1998: Senator John Herschel Glenn, Jr., the first American to orbit the Earth, returned to space as a member of the Discovery STS-95 crew. At the age of 77, John Glenn was the oldest human to fly into space.

The STS-95 mission elapsed time was 8 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes, 2 seconds. Combined with Senator Glenn’s orbital flight of 20 February 1961 aboard the Mercury space vehicle, Friendship 7, his total space mission time is 9 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes, 49 seconds. He has completed 137 orbits of the Earth.

Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) launches at Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, 2:19:34 p.m., EST, 29 October 1998. This was Discovery‘s 25th flight. (NASA)

© 2016, Bryan R. Swopes

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One thought on “29 October 1998”

  1. ..and if he didn’t help Bill Clinton get out of impeachment conviction he would have never got this mission.

    At the time NASA required otherwise healthy and cogent experienced astronauts to retire after 60 years of age.

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