On October 29, 1998, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Florida with John Glenn aboard, and the man who had been the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 returned to space after 36 years, at the age of 77, which made him the oldest person to fly in space. The mission, known as STS-95, lasted about nine days and carried a large package of experiments, including a set that studied the effects of space flight on the body in ways that were compared with ageing. The trip was long.
Glenn had been a marine pilot and had flown in two wars, and in 1962 he made three orbits of the Earth in the capsule Friendship 7, and he was treated as a national hero and given a parade in New York, and he became a friend of the Kennedy family. He left the space programme and went into business and then into politics, and he served as a senator from Ohio for four terms, from 1974 to 1999, and he ran for the presidency in 1984.
His return flight was arranged with the space agency and with the national institute on ageing, and the researchers wanted to compare the changes in an older body with those recorded in younger astronauts, and the data was used in studies of balance, sleep, the immune system and the loss of muscle. The flight also had a strong public element, since the shuttle carried a large press corps. Some scientists questioned whether the experiment itself justified the mission. The flight went well.
He was given a second parade after the flight, and he continued to work on public issues and on education, and a centre for the study of ageing and a research building at the space centre carry his name. He died in December 2016 at the age of 95. The record stood. The record he set in 1998 was later passed, as people of greater age have flown on later missions.