Former astronaut, US Sen. John Glenn hospitalized in Ohio

The arrangements have been finalized for the local public memorials honoring John Glenn, the former astronaut and USA senator who died at the age of 95 Thursday.

Glenn died on Thursday afternoon at the James cancer hospital in Columbus, according to Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

The only son of a plumber and schoolteacher, Glenn was born in 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. Glenn expressed an interest in flight and it stayed with him.

He became a combat pilot, serving in World War II and the Korean War before joining America’s space agency.

Glenn served in both World War II and the Korean War, and in 1957 he made the first nonstop supersonic flight from Los Angeles to NY. His Navy jet averaged a speed of 725 miles per hour, and flew from California to NY in 3 hours and 23 minutes.

Obama ordered that USA flags be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of Glenn’s internment.

His experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie “The Right Stuff”, along with the other Mercury pilots.

John and Annie have been a model for Jane and me, and we send our condolences to Annie & the Glenn family at this hard time.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. made history in 1962 when he completed a three-orbit flight in a cramped space capsule dubbed Friendship 7. In this 4 hour, 56 minute flight, Glenn circled the planet three times at speeds of up to 17,500 miles an hour, finally returning home with a successful splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles off Bermuda. NASA chose Glenn and the six other men for the Mercury Missions back in 1959.

He also served as a Democratic U.S. senator from OH between 1974 and 1999.

Glenn had been battling health issues since a stroke a few years ago and had been hospitalised in Columbus since last week. 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.

Finally, when he was 77 years old, Glenn went to space once more, becoming the oldest person to do so.

Awards and honors followed in the years after his shuttle mission. His vision started to fail, and then heart trouble slowed him down.

He is survived by his wife Annie, his two children, Lyn and Dave and two grandchildren. They celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in April.

John Glenn, a hero astronaut, has been hospitalized with an “unexplained condition”, a family source confirms to NBC News.

Mission accomplished through a legacy that will live on.