Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn has died in Ohio. He was 95.
Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
WATCH: NASA pioneer John Glenn dies at 95. Mike Armstrong reports.
![Click to play video: 'NASA pioneer John Glenn dies at 95']()
Hank Wilson with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs says Glenn died Thursday afternoon at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus.
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Glenn was the third U.S. astronaut in space and the first of them to get into orbit. He circled the Earth three times. The Soviet Union had put a man into orbit a year earlier in 1961.
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WATCH: President-elect Donald Trump talks about former astronaut and Senator John Glenn who passed away at the age of 95 Thursday.
![Click to play video: '‘A true American legend’: Donald Trump discusses passing of John Glenn']()
Glenn then spent 24 years as a Democrat from Ohio in the Senate and briefly made a run for president in 1984. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, aboard space shuttle Discovery.
He was the last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.
WATCH: Florida Senator Bill Nelson informs the U.S. Senate that former astronaut and Senator John Glenn has passed away at the age of 95.
![Click to play video: 'The U.S. Senate learns former astronaut and Senator John Glenn dead at 95']()
WATCH: Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy speaks to the U.S. Senate after learning about the passing of friend John Glenn, recalling a story of how Glenn landed a plane they were in under strong wind conditions.
![Click to play video: 'Vermont Senator reflects on the passing of friend, U.S. Senator John Glenn who died at the age of 95']()
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