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Description
In 1998, the late John Glenn (1921-2016), who had already retired from NASA to represent his home state of Ohio in the U.S. Senate, became the oldest American astronaut when he rode Space Shuttle mission STS-95 aboard orbiter OV-103 Discovery as a payload specialist. Thus he became the only astronaut to fly both Mercury and Space Shuttle missions. After returning to Earth, John Glenn said "The Discovery was the most intricate, complex machine man has ever built. It's a testament to our time." The Discovery now sits in the spaceflight hangar at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. John Glenn's other spacecraft, the Mercury capsule Friendship 7, is over in Washington, D.C.

Description
In 1998, the late John Glenn (1921-2016), who had already retired from NASA to represent his home state of Ohio in the U.S. Senate, became the oldest American astronaut when he rode Space Shuttle mission STS-95 aboard orbiter OV-103 Discovery as a payload specialist. Thus he became the only astronaut to fly both Mercury and Space Shuttle missions. After returning to Earth, John Glenn said "The Discovery was the most intricate, complex machine man has ever built. It's a testament to our time." The Discovery now sits in the spaceflight hangar at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. John Glenn's other spacecraft, the Mercury capsule Friendship 7, is over in Washington, D.C.