8. Back on Earth, Glenn Became a Successful Businessman and Finally Became a Successful US Senator
By the time he completed the Friendship 7 mission, John Glenn was over 40-years-old and was deemed too long in the tooth for additional space missions. On top of that, President John F. Kennedy was reluctant to risk the life of a national hero who might have a future in politics. So Glenn retired from NASA and returned to Ohio where he made a failed bid for the US Senate in 1964. After that fizzled, he got a job with RC Cola, where he rose to vice president.
He also invested in hotels near the new Disney theme park in Orlando, and became a millionaire by the early 1970s. He tried again for the US Senate in 1970, but lost the primary. The pressure of repeated failures in politics did not get to or daunt Glenn, however. He tried once more in 1974, and the third time was the charm. He won the Democrat primary, went on to win the general election, and was comfortably reelected by Ohio voters in 1980, 1986, and 1992. He served in the Senate for 24 years, before retiring from politics in 1998. That same year, he got another gig as an astronaut.
