John Glenn Facts, Personal Info: Astronaut Was First American To Orbit The Earth Dies

John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth and a former senator, died Thursday at the age of 95. He amassed a reported $5 million fortune throughout his near century on the planet.

An Ohio native who would serve as the state’s Democratic U.S. senator for 24 years, Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the globe on Feb. 20, 1962. He was also the fifth person ever to enter space. During the inaugural space voyage, Glenn spent a total 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds during the flight and orbited the planet three times.

But much later in life, at 77, Glenn would return to space while still in office on Oct. 29, 1998, and ranks as the oldest person ever to leave earth’s atmosphere.

Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, Annie Castor, 96, and his two children.

While the cause of his death was not immediately announced, Glenn was receiving treatment at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University for “more than a week,” a university spokesman told USA Today Thursday. The spokesperson couldn’t say what Glenn was being treated for.

The report also stressed that Glenn was scheduled to be honored Wednesday at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, during an event commemorating the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The attack would completely alter the course of Glenn’s life and that of the country. As a pilot with the Marines, Glenn flew 149 missions between World War II and the Korean War.

His heroism and importance for the country during the space race and Cold War against the then-Soviet Union made Glenn one of the most central figures of the 20th century.

After Glenn’s death was reported, Ohio’s current Republican Governor John Kasich tweeted out a statement.