John Glenn, pioneer of flight and space exploration, as well as former US Senator, has passed away.

One of the most distinguished Ohioans of a generation has died.

John Glenn, pioneer of flight and space exploration, as well as former US Senator, passed away Thursday after suffering from several health complications in recent years.

The Cambridge, Ohio native was 95-years-old.

In 1954, Glenn won an assignment as a Marine test pilot and, in 1957, set a transcontinental speed record for the first flight to average supersonic speeds from Los Angeles to New York. In 1959, he was selected to be one of seven NASA Mercury astronauts from an original pool of 508. Three years later, on February 20, 1962, he made history as the first American to orbit the earth, completing three orbits in a five-hour flight and returning to a hero's welcome.

In 1964, he decided to leave the Marines to enter politics. But during his first run for the Senate, he was left incapacitated while attempting to hang a mirror; Glenn slipped and the mirror broke over his head.

He spent six weeks in the hospital and nine months more recuperating from intense dizziness that affected his balance.

In 1974, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, carrying all 88 counties in Ohio. He was reelected in 1980 with the largest margin of votes in Ohio history. Ohioans returned him to the Senate for the third time in 1986, and, in 1992, he again made history by being the first popularly elected senator from Ohio to win four consecutive terms. He retired from the Senate at the end of his term in January 1999.

Glenn returned to space from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, 1998, as a member of NASA's Shuttle STS-95 Discovery mission during which the crew supported 83 research payloads and investigations on space flight and aging. He is the oldest person to have flown in space. During that mission, Glenn made 134 Earth orbits in 213 hours and 44 minutes.

NASA scientists knew that astronauts experienced changes in their bodies that were similar to the aging process. Glenn volunteered to help test changes in bones and in the immune system.

“21 different body parameters were being recorded: brain waves, spandex vest that would give you rate of respiration and volume, EKG's. [I] did that continually for four days,” Glenn told 10TV.

He says the early days in space sparked the imagination of a generation, and encouraged more kids to study science. In fifty years, what scientists have learned here, produced advances in everything from medicine to computers.

Most recently in June 2016, Governor John Kasich signed a bill to rename Port Columbus International Airport in Glenn’s honor. It will now be called John Glenn Columbus International Airport.