February marks the 58th anniversary of John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth – the first American to make this journey, circling our planet three times. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States senator from Ohio, and in 1998 flew into space again at age 77.
John Glenn was photographed by Yousuf Karsh on June 29, 1968. Karsh would go on to photograph the Apollo II crew, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, in 1969.