NASA

John Glenn's biography reads like that of a superhero: first American to orbit Earth, then a United States senator and eventually the oldest person to go into space. So when PM ran into him at a recent gathering at Ohio State University (home of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs), we couldn't help but ask him his thoughts on the current space program and America's world standing.

John Glenn on the necessity of manned spaceflight:

"Just to continue a space program because it's a space program? No, I don't think we have an obligation for that. But it [the space program] is not being carried out how I'd like to see it carried out. The space program has always been dual-purpose for me. It's not just to go out and explore—but also to do fundamental research of a different nature that benefits people right here."

On returning to space at age 77:

"We had 83 different space research projects on my last space flight in '98, and they covered the whole gamut. I was on that flight because we wanted to study aging, to study what my response was to the same space experience [as the younger astronauts]. The idea was that if we can uncover in the human body what causes changes in immunity, and you get different responses to disease and infection and so on…If we can find what causes that, then maybe we can not only find it possible for younger people to stay in space longer, but also find ways to cut out the frailties of aging."

"The space program has always been dual-purpose for me. It's not just to go out and explore—but also to do fundamental research of a different nature that benefits people right here."

On America's competitiveness:

"I think this country got to be what it is and to be a leader among nations because of two basic things. One was education, and the second was we put more into basic research. And we're not doing that anymore. We're now being out-competed by these other nations around the world, and our leadership position will fall if that continues for very long. Are we going to do basic research in space that is valuable for our economy and position in the world? That's what we're losing. I'd hate to see us lose the research that is very valuable, when our nation needs to be more competitive than it ever had to before. While we're still ahead in research and higher education, those leadership positions aren't going to be with us forever."

On Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, which chronicled the first wave of astronauts, including Glenn:

"I didn't like the movie. The book was good, though. The movie would have been okay if they had made it clear it was all Hollywood stuff, but they tried to make it seem like it was all real. And I've never met the man who played me [Ed Harris]. The only movie to get space right was Apollo 13. I liked that."

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