ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, SportsAmerican hero looks back on 50 years

Fifty years ago today, Americans were glued to their television screens. America's first space hero, John Glenn made history. He became the first American to orbit the earth.

Glenn made three orbits in under five hours inside his Mercury capsule, "Friendship 7."

That was not all for this space cowboy! Thirty-six years later, in October 1998, Glenn, then 77 years old, became the oldest astronaut to go into space. He spent nine days and traveled over three million miles onboard the shuttle Discovery. Glenn had convinced NASA to let him be an experiment on aging.

John Glenn is now 90 years old. He spent part of the weekend at Cape Canaveral for this 50th anniversary celebration. Today, he attended a series of events at Ohio State University. There will be a special dinner this evening and a live chat with crew members now aboard the International Space Station.

Glenn, he also served as a Senator from Ohio for 25 years, is the namesake of a public affairs school at Ohio State. He said, "I guess I've recalled it (the flight) often over the past 50 years and that kept it fresh. It was such an impressive thing at the time that is indelibly imprinted on my memory, and I can recall those days very, very well."

Glenn's first trip into space helped America catch up to the Soviet Union's accomplishments in space. Glenn says he thinks it was a turning point for America's national psyche.