(Lead Photo: NASA) It’s very, very hard to find a reason to lament John Glenn’s passing, and that is not a negative: For the ninety-five years that the man walked this planet, he lived more than ten average men ever could in the same time. Aviator. Astronaut. Engineer. United States Senator. Fighter pilot. And that’s his professional career, one that spanned from the moment he enlisted as a Naval Aviator in March, 1943 until the end, and in between was a legend of a man that will stand up to the harshest critic simply because his accolades speak for themselves.

We could recite his service in the Naval/Marine service that saw him in combat in the Pacific during WWII, or his time during the Korean War, flying his F9F Panther in combat and earning the nickname “magnet ass” for his ability to literally catch flak, or his shootdowns flying the F-86 Sabre. We could go over his awards, including his six Distinguished Flying Crosses and a myriad of other awards, but we won’t for two reasons: all of that can be found in the public file via a quick Google search, and because Glenn’s astronaut career overshadowed all of that in one shot.

John Glenn was one of seven men chosen out of a field of 508 potential candidates for the opportunity to become the first astronauts for the United States. At 2:47 p.m. on February 20th, 1962, tucked into the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7, Glenn started the trip up into the heavens that would seal his fate into legends as the first American to orbit the Earth. After just shy of five hours later, where he got to see sunrises and sunsets from space, storms over the Pacific and Africa, the city of Perth, Australia in full light for his flight, and the “fireflies”, brightly illuminated objects that were flying by his windows like glowing dust or stars, he splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by the USS Noa. 

After that, you’d think that would be more than enough for one man, but Glenn continued work, as a Senator for the state of Ohio that spanned 1974-1999, a myriad of projects during that same time period, and even a return to space in 1998 on the STS-95 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. You could look to his 73-year marriage to his wife, Annie, and their two children. But in the grand scheme of things, what anyone needs to understand about John Glenn is not his accomplishments, many as they are, or the importance of what he did.

John H. Glenn, Jr. lived. He lived every day, working hard for what he believed in, with every fiber of his being.

Godspeed, sir.

“The moment of twilight is simply beautiful.” -John Glenn, Jr.