NASA to Celebrate John Glenn's Legacy with Memorial Service Today

Members of the public pay their respects to former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn as he lies in repose, under a United States Marine honor guard, in the Rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Friday, Dec. 16, 2016.
Members of the public pay their respects to former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn as he lies in repose, under a United States Marine honor guard, in the Rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Friday, Dec. 16, 2016. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA will celebrate the life and legacy of pioneering astronaut John Glenn with a memorial service at Ohio State University today (Dec. 17), and space agency officials will provide a live webcast of the service for the public. 

Ohio State University in Columbus will host the memorial service for Glenn, who died on Dec. 8 at age 95. The service, entitiled "John Glenn: Celebrating a Life of Service," will begin at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) and will be streamed live on NASA TV. You can also watch the webcast here, courtesy of NASA TV. 

"One of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts, Glenn, who died Dec. 8, also served 24 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio," NASA officials wrote in a statement. "His flight on Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962, showed the world that America was a serious contender in the space race with the Soviet Union. It also made Glenn an instant hero." [John Glenn: An American Hero's Greatest Moments]

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden "will pay tribute to Glenn’s early contributions to human spaceflight and enduring legacy" during the program, NASA officials added.

You can see NASA's full tribute to John Glenn at the agency's dedicated tribute website here: https://www.nasa.gov/content/profile-of-john-glenn.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.