Godspeed John Glenn: 50 years since first U.S. orbit

In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, Sen. John Glenn talks about the controller of Friendship 7 and how he used it to manually control the spacecraft when the thruster failed while touring his office in Columbus, Ohio. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth, piloting Friendship 7 around the planet three times in 1962. Glenn, as a U.S. senator at age 77, also became the oldest person in space by orbiting Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)