--- title: Video: How John Glenn Honored by Mike Massimino description: A two-time shuttle veteran reflects on the role the first American to orbit the Earth had on all of the astronauts who would follow canonical: https://time.com/4408820/john-glenn-mike-massimino-astronaut/ author: Kenneth Bachor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-18T11:00:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:41:48.023Z article:section: History og:title: Watch: How a 77-Year-Old Astronaut Inspired a New Generation og:description: Two-time shuttle veteran Michael Massimino reflects on the impact of John Glenn og:url: https://time.com/4408820/john-glenn-mike-massimino-astronaut/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59c4568299838e4e/69889c2f5f570f30f5b21ba7/john-glenn-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1611 og:image:height: 906 og:image:alt: john-glenn-facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: How a 77-Year-Old Astronaut Inspired a New Generation twitter:description: Two-time shuttle veteran Michael Massimino reflects on the impact of John Glenn twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59c4568299838e4e/69889c2f5f570f30f5b21ba7/john-glenn-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How a 77-Year-Old Astronaut Inspired a New Generation > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=88158547-8ab5-4820-9c5a-c02f06e7eba0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=88158547-8ab5-4820-9c5a-c02f06e7eba0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: John Glenn: A Look Back at His Legacy [Watch (HLS stream): John Glenn: A Look Back at His Legacy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kjRES221.m3u8) (4:28)  _Published 2016-07-15. Former NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino reflects on John Glenn's impact._ by [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) and [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/) Jul 18, 2016 11:00 AM UTC by [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) and [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/) Jul 18, 2016 11:00 AM UTC John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth six months before Mike Massimino was even born. But 40 years later, when Massimino made his own first trip to space, he felt the gravitational, inspirational tug of what Glenn had accomplished so many years earlier. On the occasion of Glenn’s 95th birthday, on July 18, Massimino reflects on an American legend. ## Transcript Roger, Robin, clear, flight path is good, six nine. Roger, back up clock is started. I think because of who he was, his personality, what he embodied, I think, was what I would imagine as the perfect astronaut or the perfect American hero. So I think because of his personality and the way he was able to Sort of exude this American hero, what we wanted our country to be like. What we wanna think of ourselves, maybe not how we actually behave or how we're able to, what we're able to achieve. But he embodied what we would strive for. He was such an icon back then. I remember one of my. One of my mother's cousins named their kid after him. You know it was, and it was a John Glenn High School out in Long Island and it was just, he was the ultimate hero. I think particularly in those years before we had a moon walker, you know he was it. You could debate whether or not it was as good or Or some of the other accomplishments. Certainly was an amazing accomplishment. Being the first person to orbit, it wasn't even the first person to orbit or the second person to orbit. It was the first American to orbit. I think doing that was a great accomplishment, Was more. I really think it was him I think people saw him, heard him speak and said we just love this guy and I think the press picked up on it. I think the American people did too and that's who he was, he was genuinely a great man. I became an astronaut in 1996 and I idolized all the original seven. And the Apollo moonwalkers. I knew who those guys were growing up, and occasionally you would see one of them. After I became an astronaut, occasionally you'd get to meet one of them. And then this rumor was kind of going around that John Glenn might fly in space again, and I could not believe that this was gonna happen. I think he started to come in for physical Took all exams and so on right around the time that me and my classmates and I started as astronauts. And there was talk about why? Why are we flying this guy around? He flew so many years ago. Why is he flying again now? And I think there was maybe a little bit of skepticism as to the actual reasons. There was science reasons, and medical research, and so on. And I'll probably could be debated one way in the other. Personally I didn't care. I thought that just having this dude in our locker room and around the water cooler. I was so excited about that as a little bit. I don't care what [ INAUDIBLE ] to make up. You know, let just get this guy. Back here. What I do remember was all the excitement it created everywhere, not just for me and my friends in the astronaut office, but for the entire country. Everyone was glued to their TV sets. The major anchors from all the news programs were there. The President of the United States and the First Lady came to the launch. Everyone paid attention. And it's hard to. To get people to pay attention. Cuz there's a lot going on. But having him in space again made them pay attention to the shuttle launch. And I remember there was a parade in Houston. We had a parade, remember they had, they re- enacted the parade in New York City. And his crew got to do that after the flight. They came for this ticker tape parade in Manhattan like they did, we haven't had one of those since the Apollo days Amazing. So he recreated that ticket tape parade, that's how much excitement there was. We had a parade in Houston, and the governor was there, Governor Bush at the time, came and spoke. This was back in 1998, and since it was in Houston, all of us got to go. We all got to ride in cars or fire trucks. [ INAUDIBLE ] I think it was on a fire truck, with about 30 others. There was a lot of astronauts, it was like it was back in the old days. But we had this parade, and everyone was in it. We had this big reception afterwards, and everyone was excited. And I said to one of my buddies, it was Rick Husband, I went up to him and go you know, this is our best chance to ask for a raise, cuz everyone loved us again. Everyone loved astronauts again, and everyone Everyone's excited about this Space Program. So, I think it really was a great thing because it got people to pay attention for what we were doing in space and learn about what was going on with the Shadow Program. And for me personally, it was Because it was just a dream to get to have my hero as a colleague for a little while. It was just great. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4408820/john-glenn-mike-massimino-astronaut/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4408820/john-glenn-mike-massimino-astronaut/"},"headline":"How a 77-Year-Old Astronaut Inspired a New Generation","datePublished":"2016-07-18T11:00:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:41:48.023Z","description":"Two-time shuttle veteran Michael J. 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