John Glenn obituary

Glenn was the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, and later became one of his country's most effective senators

• Full report: astronaut John Glenn dies aged 95

John Glenn, who has died aged 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth and later the oldest person ever to be sent into space. During his long career he transformed himself from a highly decorated combat pilot and astronaut - one of the "Mercury Seven" group of military test pilots selected in 1959 by Nasa to become America's first astronauts - into one of his country's longest-serving and most effective senators.

His historic space flight on 20 February 1962, when Glenn performed three orbits of the Earth in the Friendship 7 spacecraft, travelling 81,000 miles at more than 17,000mph, was broadcast live around the world. Unbeknown to Glenn, the control centre had received signals early in the flight showing that the heat shield appeared to have broken loose. In the capsule itself the attitude controls had failed. By the time Glenn learned of the heat shield problem during his third orbit, he was reconciling himself to the likelihood that he would have to calculate his own angle of re-entry. If he got it wrong, the capsule would burn up. If he got it right, failure of the heat shield might well produce the same outcome.