John Herschel Glenn Jr. is an American astronaut, Marine Corps fighter pilot, ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, United States Senator, and Democratic politician. Of the Mercury Seven original astronaut group, he was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. After retiring from NASA, he served as a United States Senator from 1974 to 1999. He received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. He became the oldest person to fly in space when, at the age of 77 in 1998, he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery . Glenn and M. Scott Carpenter are the last surviving members of the Mercury Seven as of May, 2008.