TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - John Glenn, The first US astronaut to have orbited the earth, and was the world's oldest spaceman, has died in Ohio Thursday, December 12. He was 95 years old.
Glenn, the last survivor of 'Mercury Seven' group of pilots selected by NASA to become America's first astronauts, died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus' Ohio State University. He was found by Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
Glenn was also a former Ohio senator from the Democrat in 1974.
In 1962, he became the first American to orbit the Earth and circled it three times; a year after the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin into orbit.
US President Barack Obama, who in 2012 awarded Glenn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said that with Glenn's passing, the nation lost an icon.
Meanwhile, president-elect Donald Trump took to his twitter and wrote that America had lost "a great pioneer of air and space," and that Glenn was "a hero and inspired generations".
Glenn had been hospitalized since November 25th, 2016. His family released a statement saying that he left in peace. "He left earth for the third time as a happy and fulfilled person," the statement said.
ANTARA
