John Glenn: A Memoir

"There is only one John Glenn", declared NASA boss Dan Goldin in announcing Glenn's return to space in 1998. In this, his first memoir, John Glenn, called by some the last American hero, will tell the story of both his legendary journeys into space and of a lifetime spent challenging the limits of personal achievement.

Always resisting the label "hero", Ohio-born John Glenn has nevertheless spent a lifetime accomplishing the extraordinary: as a Marine fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War, a record-setting supersonic test pilot, and the international symbol for America's conquest of space during the bold years of the Kennedy administration. The first American to orbit the Earth, Glenn's journey in Friendship 7 in 1962 required all his skill and audacity as a pilot. When it became clear NASA did not intend to risk their most famous astronaut by sending him into space again, Glenn ultimately forged a different role in public life. He served in the US Senate for 24 years, supporting efficiency in government, the armed services, and nuclear non-proliferation.

And then, on the eve of retirement, Glenn startled and thrilled people of all ages with the astonishing news of his second space journey: a nine-day trip during which he would be monitored for valuable data pertaining to the similarities between aging on Earth and weightlessness in space. In tenaciously seeking such a potentially dangerous mission at the age of 77, Glenn would also, as Newsweek put it, "show the rest of us how to grow old". In his memoir, Glenn will take readers through the grueling tests and preparations for the flight, as well as through the enormous differences between his solo flight of just underfive hours in 1962 and his voyage 36 years later as part of a team of seven aboard the shuttle Discovery.

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