John Glenn was the last surviving Mercury 7 astronaut
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and the final living member of NASA's "Original Seven" Mercury astronaut corps, passed away at the age of 95.
Glenn passed away (Thursday, December 8, 2016), at the Wexner Medical Center, surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and wife of 73 years, Annie, after spending more than a week in the hospital at The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. His health had apparently been declining for some time, but it wasn't (Wednesday, December 7) that an Ohio State University representative said Glenn had been admitted to the hospital. The spokesman declined to comment further on Glenn's condition or diagnosis.
The late astronaut, who also traveled on STS-95 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in late 1998 and still holds the record for the oldest person to ever journey into space, was anticipated to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. In 2013, the next-to-last one passed away. The five sons of Jeff Tracy in the children's television series "Thunderbirds" were also given those names: Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper, and John Glenn. These were the first five Americans to travel into space as part of the Mercury project.
