Washington, DC July 15, 1997 – Under prodding by the Clinton White House, NASA
space officials have given the green light for U.S. Sen. John H. Glenn, Jr.
(D-OH.) to fly as a crew member of a space shuttle mission in late 1998,
SpaceCast has learned from sources in both Washington and Cape Canaveral.
Glenn has reportedly been manifested on the STS-95 space shuttle crew set
for a fall, 1998 launch. If Glenn passes his medical review, the 76 year
old former Project Mercury astronaut and 1984 Presidential candidate would
become the oldest person ever to fly into space. Glenn will be leaving his
Senate office in January, 1999. He was first elected in 1974, having left
NASA service a decade earlier to pursue a political career.

Washington sources told SpaceCast that Glenn made a personal appeal to
President Clinton to “clear the way” for a final approval decision by NASA
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who sources say reluctantly approved the
move. Glenn’s launch into space as a non-astronaut crew member will require
an exemption to a rule imposed following the 1986 Challenger disaster that
banned civilian space participants on the U.S. spacecraft. Goldin has
repeatedly stood by the rule, which has grounded such persons as
journalists and teachers from flying aboard the shuttles, which were deemed
as too risky for nonprofessional flight crew participants. New Hampshire
teacher Christa McAulliffe was killed in the Challenger explosion shortly
after launch on January 28, 1986. In the wake of the accident her backup,
Barbara Morgan, who was also awaiting a space mission was denied flight
status. Many members of the original 1986 Teacher in Space program have
urged NASA administrators to allow Morgan to fly and complete the lessons
from space that McAuliffe was to teach during her flight. Sources in
Washington say that the decision, when announced, will likely cause an
uproar from the teachers awaiting future flight opportunities.

On February 20, 1962 Glenn was launched aboard an Atlas rocket sealed
inside the Friendship 7, a bell-shaped space capsule, the third manned
spaceflight in U.S. history. Glenn orbited the Earth three times before
parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean safely, completing the first American
orbital mission. Prior to joining NASA in 1958 Glenn was a record-breaking
Marine Corps. fighter pilot.

A Democrat associated with President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy
family, Glenn was reelected to the Senate in 1980, 1986, and 1992. He ran
unsuccessfully for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984, but was
defeated in the primaries by former Vice President Walter Mondale and
Colorado Senator Gary Hart. Mondale, who went on to win the nomination was
defeated by President Ronald Reagan in a landslide in November, 1984.
Glenn announced last may that he would not seek another term in the Senate.
He has since indicated a desire to return to space to study the effects of
weightlessness on the elderly. The idea was considered remote -until
Washington politicians began hearing from Glenn that he was in fact serious
about the prospect of another, last space mission.