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Former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn discussed his remarkable career in a conversation with Mark Updegrove, director of the LBJ Library and Museum, on October 30, 2012. Glenn was one of the "Original Seven" NASA Mercury astronauts and made history as the first American to orbit the earth. Later embarking on a political career, Glenn represented his home state of Ohio as a U.S. Senator from 1975 to 1999, and ran for President in 1984. He returned to space in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person to fly in space. Glenn received a Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

Humanities Texas cosponsored the event at the LBJ Library. The following morning, Senator Glenn and his wife, Annie, were the guests of honor at a breakfast held at the historic Byrne-Reed House.

Watch video from the event below.

John Glenn (right) and Mark Updegrove discuss Glenn's life and career at the LBJ Library and Museum on October 30, 2012.

John Glenn in 1998. NASA photo.
John Glenn (right) in conversation with Mark Updegrove. LBJ Library photo by Lauren Gerson.
Guests at a breakfast in honor of John Glenn at the Byrne-Reed House. From left to right: Michael L. Klein, Humanities Texas board member; Louis Beck, a member of the board of advisors at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University; Senator John Glenn; his wife Annie Glenn; and Michael L. Gillette, executive director of Humanities Texas.