FORMER astronaut and US Senator 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 said Glenn died on Thursday afternoon at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.
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 Democrat from Ohio in the Senate - and made a failed run for president in 1984.
It was his long political career which enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery aged 77 in 1998, a cosmic victory lap that he relished and turned into a teachable moment about growing old.
He got to move around aboard the shuttle for far longer - nine days compared with just under five hours in 1962 - as well as sleep and experiment with bubbles in weightlessness. He holds the record for the oldest person in space.
He is survived by his wife Anna, whom he married in 1943 after the pair met as toddlers. He bought her a diamond engagement ring in 1942 for 125 US dollars and it was never replaced.
They had two children, Carolyn and John David.
Writing in 2012, he said: "I've been very fortunate to have a lot of great experiences in my life and I'm thankful for them."
Here are some of the most memorable quotes from the astronaut, who also enjoyed a long career in the US Senate.
"We are placed here with certain talents and capabilities. It is up to each of us to use those talents and capabilities as best you can. If you do that, I think there is a power greater than any of us that will place the opportunities in our way, and if we use our talents properly, we will be living the kind of life we should live." - At a Nasa news conference in 1959 to introduce the Mercury 7 astronauts of which he was part.
"Zero-G and I feel fine." - While in orbit in 1962.
"To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible." - On his second flight on space shuttle Discovery in 1998 at the age of 77.
"Don't tune out, cop out or drop out. Don't give in to complacency and cynicism. Don't ignore what is bad, but concentrate on building what is good. Don't take America and the values reflected in our form of government for granted. And never forget that in our democracy, the government is not 'them' - it is 'us'." - Announcing his retirement from the US Senate in 1997.
"We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves." - Keynote address at Ohio State University's commencement in 2009.
