John Glenn should have stuck with being a Space Ace and left politics well enough alone I agree.
I still honor him for touching the stars.
Alright, I’m gonna renege on #14 because of the number of people talking about what kind of guy he was (good and bad).
The thing about John Glenn is that he was softly fired by NASA. He “resigned” from NASA in 1964 after being told that his psychological profile showed that he was more suited for public life. Translation: “Your fellow astronauts can’t stand you and won’t work with you. You’re one-and-done on spaceflights. You can hang around and be an ‘astronaut’ if you want but you’re never going up again.”
He actually did go into space on a shuttle flight but that was a total crock. It was a political payoff for killing an investigation into Bill Clinton’s many ethics failings. Glenn did not have a legitimate job on the mission, he sat there wired up to have hit vital signs measures as a study on geriatric people in space. I think it sucks that he bumped a qualified astronaut for this political stupidity. I remember all the media fanfare behind the whole “John Glenn: Return to Space”, don’t make me vomit. It was as much a crock as Sen. Jake Garn, another geezer passenger that had no business bumping a legitimate astronaut with a legitimate job. It’s a travesty that NASA allowed passengers aboard space shuttle flights for political reasons. It is sleazy crap.
I admire John Glenn for being a combat pilot and risking his life and going up in an Atlas rocket that had a downright scary safety record. Beyond that, I respect nothing about him.