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John Glenn, 1st Astronaut To Orbit Earth, Has Died At 95

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (CBSMiami/AP) — John Glenn, 1st US astronaut to orbit Earth who later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, has died at 95.

Glenn was the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts, military test pilots selected by NASA in 1959 to become America's first astronauts.

Hank Wilson with Ohio State University's John Glenn College of Public Affairs said Wednesday that Glenn was at the James Cancer Hospital, but that didn't mean he necessarily had cancer.

Wilson said at the time he didn't have other information about Glenn's condition, illness or prognosis.

Glenn apologized for his poor eyesight this year at the renaming of Columbus' airport after him. He said then he'd lost some of his eyesight because of macular degeneration and a small stroke. Glenn had a heart valve replacement in 2014.

In 1962, Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, and the fifth human in space. He was also the oldest person to go into space when, in 1998 at the age of 77, he returned to space as a Payload Specialist on Discovery's STS-95 mission.

An Ohio native, Glenn was a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, engineer and United States Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

Senator Bill Nelson released this statement on the passing of John Glenn.

"John Glenn is the last of the original seven American astronauts who truly had the 'right stuff.' On top of paving the way for the rest of us, he was also a first-class gentleman and an unabashed patriot. He leaves his wife Annie, who always stood by him as he ventured into the unknown cosmos."

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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