Glenn gets feet back on ground

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For wife's sake, no more flights

Monday, November 9, 1998

BY MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press

John and Annie Glenn. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After a shaky reintroduction to gravity, John Glenn was ''95 or 98 percent back to normal'' Sunday, walking briskly, telling jokes and urging old folks to follow their dreams.

''I feel very elated that things went well. We got a lot of the data we were looking to get and worked very hard up there,'' NASA's 77-year-old geriatric test subject said on his first morning back on Earth.

In his first post-flight news conference, Mr. Glenn admitted he ''didn't feel too hot'' when he stood and walked out of space shuttle Discovery on Saturday.

He was determined, though, to join his six crew mates for the traditional walk around the shuttle.

''If I would have been on my hands and knees, I was going to do it,'' said Mr. Glenn, who beat the oldest-spaceman record by 16 years.

Even after a good night's sleep, Mr. Glenn still was being careful Sunday not to turn his head - which after nine days of weightlessness would have made him dizzy.

Otherwise, he looked and sounded as fit as ever.

One of his much younger crew mates, in fact, was the only one to come back wounded. Stephen Robinson smacked his head when he came barreling out of a tunnel in weightlessness; he suffered a 1-inch gash over his right eye.

Later Sunday, Mr. Glenn and his shuttle crew mates arrived in Houston, where more than 1,000 people packed an airport hangar to welcome them back.

Mr. Glenn will remain in Houston for three more weeks of medical tests. Before leaving Florida, he said his shuttle mission was every bit as satisfying as his ride aboard Friendship 7 back in 1962.

There will be no more space flights, though, Mr. Glenn promised, ''unless there's some rising demand that I go back up again.'' His wife, Annie, already has put her foot down.

''We've been married a long time, next April will be 56 years,'' he said. ''I owe her a little consideration at this point in life, I think.''

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