Launching Memories

“Exhilarating”: A retrospect of Sen. John Glenn’s Discovery Mission, 25 years later 

Sen. John Glenn joined an astronaut crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-95, launched into orbit 25 years ago — on Oct. 29, 1998 — for nine days among the stars. 

“It was hard to imagine that virtually the entire history of space travel had occurred between my first ride and my second,” Glenn wrote in his memoir book. “Somebody had pointed out that more time had passed between Friendship 7 and this Discovery mission than had passed between Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic flight and Friendship 7. It didn’t seem that long to me, but that is the way lives pass when you look back in them: in the blink of an eye.” 

In the early 1990s, due to his work on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Glenn began noticing parallels between the human aging process and some of the negative symptoms experienced by astronauts exposed to the weightlessness of space. Glenn started meeting with NASA officials on this topic in 1995, and a basic consensus emerged: To learn more about the possible connections between aging and weightlessness, NASA needed to send an older individual into space. Glenn saw himself as the ideal candidate, and NASA approved. 

Portrait of John and Annie Glenn taken during Glenn’s training for NASA mission STS-95, 1998. (Credit: NASA)

 

Carly Dearborn, the public policy archivist based in The Ohio State University Libraries, wrote that during the mission the seven crewmembers used a SPACEHAB module to conduct more than 80 experiments, released and then retrieved a Spartan satellite built to study the sun and solar winds and tested hardware slated for use in a later shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition to his duties as a payload specialist, Glenn underwent a series of medical tests prior to, during and after the space flight to monitor for various medical conditions, such as osteoporosis, muscle loss and immune system suppression, commonly suffered by astronauts due to the absence of gravity. Other experiments tested Glenn’s balance and perception, his protein metabolism, and his heart and blood flow. Glenn wore a harness during many of his nights in space to monitor sleep disorders, another common problem in space travel. After a successful mission totaling 134 orbits, Discovery touched down at Cape Canaveral on Nov. 7, 1998.

In honor of this anniversary, enjoy these 25 photos and recollections of the historic mission. Quotes from Glenn are from his book, “John Glenn: A Memoir.”

You’re the most persistent man I’ve ever met. You’ve passed all your physicals, the science is good, and we’ve called a news conference tomorrow to announce that John Glenn’s going back into space. — Dan Goldin, then-NASA Administrator, “John Glenn: A Memoir” 

John Glenn and NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin at the NASA press conference announcing Glenn’s return to space as a crew member on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95, Jan. 16, 1998. (Credit: NASA)

On Sept. 28, with the flight barely a month away, I cast my final vote in the Senate. It was a relatively innocuous one, a procedural motion on a bill that would place a moratorium on states taxing Internet sales, and I voted in favor of it. It brought my total number of votes in the Senate to 9,414. — Glenn 

The space shuttle might seem cramped to most people. For somebody who had flown in the 9-by-7-foot Friendship 7, it looked as accommodating as a Hilton. — Glenn
The idea of an ancient guy like me going into space was exhilarating. — Glenn

Photo one: Astronaut John Glenn enters the Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7, prior to the launch of Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) on Feb. 20, 1962. (Credit: NASA) Photo two: Group portrait of the crew members of NASA mission STS-95 taken while in space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, 1998. (Credit: NASA)

It also seemed as though people of all ages were being caught up once again in the excitement of space flight itself. The space program was a place to which they could turn to bring back the sense of purpose that had driven human exploration since before recorded history. — Glenn

While the processes I was going to study in space do tend to slow people down as they age, increased longevity and better health mean more older people are doing more things than ever before. My scheduled return to space helped bring this trend into the open. — Glenn 

Glenn, standing here beside his sleeping compartment, wore a sleep monitoring harness during many of his nights on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. (Credit: NASA)

More than anything, I think the excitement surrounding my return to space was due to that redefinition of what people could expect of the elderly, and what the elderly could expect of themselves.

— Glenn

I couldn’t have felt better, and three hours into the flight I reprised an old line in my first transmission from orbit: “Zero G and I feel fine.” — Glenn
Let the record show that John has a smile on his face, and it goes from one ear to the other one and we haven’t been able to remove it yet. — Curtis Brown, Discovery Commander, in flight, Oct. 29, 1998

Photo one: U.S. Sen. John H. Glenn Jr., STS-95 payload specialist, focuses in on a target of opportunity as he participates in earth observations photography during the nearly nine-day Space Shuttle mission aboard Discovery. (Credit: NASA) Photo two: STS-95 mission Commander Curtis Brown (left) and Payload Specialist John Glenn are photographed on the aft flight deck of Discovery during a press conference, Oct. 31, 1998. (Credit: NASA)

The kitchen already had our orders for launch morning. I told them, “I want steak and eggs. It worked the last time, and I don’t want to break a winning streak.” — Glenn

On Nov. 3 I briefly donned my political hat. It was the first time in years I didn’t go to the polls on Election Day. I and the rest of the American crew had filed absentee ballots — but I broadcast my normal Election Day get-out-and-vote message to the voters back home. — Glenn 

John Glenn sits in the flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery during his training for NASA mission STS-95, 1998. (Credit: NASA)

Out on the runway, under a bright midday sun, Dan Goldin was saying nice things that I heard about only later: that my flight had inspired the elderly, changed the way grandchildren look at their grandparents, and made future flights safer for future astronauts. — Glenn 

School children sent Glenn letters and drawings following his return to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. (Credit: John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University)

The two flights I was privileged to make stand as bookends of the history of space flight thus far. Now new volumes are being written. Last December, barely a month after the flight of STS-95, the first two components of the International Space Station were joined in orbit. The station, a testament to international cooperation, will make possible quantum advances in research. I hope that the studies on aging to which I opened the door on Discovery will be expanded on the space station. — Glenn

John and Annie Glenn ride in the New York City parade honoring the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95 crew members, 1998. (Credit: NASA)