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No, Glenn only got two launches—Mercury 6 and the space shuttle mission that he sold his soul for. He flew his famed Mercury mission in 1962. By 1964, his co-workers were ready to kill him. NASA sorta kinda softly fired him in 1964 by telling him, “Your psychological profile shows that your personality is best suited to public life.” The writing was on the wall. He could hang around a be an ‘astronaut’ on the payroll and work some collateral duties but he’s not getting another spaceflight. With Glenn’s ego, there’s no way he would do that and NASA knew it. Buh-bye.

He did well on a Mercury flight when he went by himself into space but he was not a team player and wanted everything his way. When he tried to enforce his idea of morality on everybody else, that’s when it got ugly. A few of John’s fellow astronauts nearly came to blows with him and refused to work with him in any capacity. The little yelling match that they showed in the movie The Right Stuff was nothing. John always functioned well in the limelight. He was a good-looking all-American boy who could turn on the charm. But when things went bad at NASA, they went downhill fast. In the 2 years after John’s orbital flight, he was still a hero to the public and NASA is very PR-driven. That’s why NASA very nicely said, “We love you, John, as does America, but you need to go do something else now,” as they nudged him out the door.

The thing with John Glenn is that he was always a politician first and he knew how to get himself in with well-placed people. When he got to meet John and Jackie Kennedy after his Friendship 7 flight, he was a real charmer with them and was a family friend for the rest of his life. Getting in with the Kennedys is how he got the skids greased for getting into government and eventually becoming a senator. Ole John knew how to work it. Later on it was the Clintons, that’s how he got his shuttle ride. That whole thing disgusts me beyond belief.