United States Senator John Glenn returned to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery in late October, 1998, 36 years after his first lift-off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. (46) {{U}}The 77-year-old politician, who in 1962 became America's first man to orbit the Earth, blasted off with six other astronauts on a mission that would include research into ageing.{{/U}} Taking leave of him at the space center along with 3,000 media representatives, 20,000 invited guests and an estimated half million people who crowded vantage points round about to watch the launch-- were his wife of more than 50 years, Annie, his two children and two grandchildren.
Glenn fever struck Florida's space coast months ahead of the launch, with hotel rooms booked up half a year in advance. One local newspaper called the phenomenon "Hurricane Glenn", an ironic reference to the spate of devastating hurricane that had already hit the Florida coast during 1998.
The Ohio senator had campaigned for several years to be allowed this return trip into space. (47) {{U}}NASA administers finally agreed to his proposed study on the effects of weightlessness on elderly people and the possible parallels between the side-effects of weightlessness and the ageing process itself.{{/U}} (48) {{U}}Critics, however, complained that the mission was little more than a public relations exercise aimed at raising the profile of NASA, and would do nothing to advance research into the geriatric condition.{{/U}} Some were even saying that the trip represented the ultimate congressional junket.
Glenn insisted from the beginning that the space mission was a serious one, however. He subjected himself--and others--to a series of tests in a special laboratory while in orbit. (49) {{U}}He swallowed a special thermometer before lift-off so that his temperature could be monitored, and had a tube implanted in his arm to facilitate the taking of blood samples without the need for fresh needles each time.{{/U}} Other tests conducted on his return to Earth were designed to measure his bone density and changes in his spinal cord.
(50) {{U}}NASA officials fuelled suspicion that Glenn's trip had dubious practical value, however, by announcing that there were no plans to test any more elderly astronauts after his trip.{{/U}} This was despite the fact that 67-year-old Jerrie Cobb, one of 13 women who trained for the Space programme with Glenn in the early 1960s but who were never allowed to fly, expressed her determination to become the next geriatric guineapig in orbit.
The space experience has changed a great deal in the 36 years since Glenn was last in orbit. Unlike his five-hour 1962 trip, this was no solo mission.