"John Glenn Honored as an Ambassador of Exploration"

“To me, there is no greater calling … If I can inspire young people to dedicate themselves to the good of mankind, I've accomplished something.”

“John Glenn School of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University”

“John Glenn's Flight on Friendship 7, MA-6 – as heard on KCBS Radio”

“I pray every day and I think everybody should. I don't think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and look out at the Earth from this vantage point. We're not so high compared to people who went to the moon and back. But to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is, to me, impossible. It just strengthens my faith.”

“I don't think many people remember what life was like in those days … This was the era when the Russians were claiming superiority, and they could make a pretty good case — they put up Sputnik in '57; they had already sent men into space to orbit the earth… There was this fear that perhaps communism was the wave of the future. The astronauts, all of us, really believed we were locked in a battle of democracy versus communism, where the winner would dominate the world.”

“Could this have just happened? . . . I can’t believe that ... Some Power put all this into orbit and keeps it there.”