Washington, DC July 15, 1997 – Under prodding by the Clinton White House, NASA

space officials have given the green light for U.S. Sen. John H. Glenn, Jr.

(D-OH.) to fly as a crew member of a space shuttle mission in late 1998,

SpaceCast has learned from sources in both Washington and Cape Canaveral.

Glenn has reportedly been manifested on the STS-95 space shuttle crew set

for a fall, 1998 launch. If Glenn passes his medical review, the 76 year

old former Project Mercury astronaut and 1984 Presidential candidate would

become the oldest person ever to fly into space. Glenn will be leaving his

Senate office in January, 1999. He was first elected in 1974, having left

NASA service a decade earlier to pursue a political career.

Washington sources told SpaceCast that Glenn made a personal appeal to

President Clinton to "clear the way" for a final approval decision by NASA

Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who sources say reluctantly approved the

move. Glenn's launch into space as a non-astronaut crew member will require

an exemption to a rule imposed following the 1986 Challenger disaster that

banned civilian space participants on the U.S. spacecraft. Goldin has

repeatedly stood by the rule, which has grounded such persons as

journalists and teachers from flying aboard the shuttles, which were deemed

as too risky for nonprofessional flight crew participants. New Hampshire

teacher Christa McAulliffe was killed in the Challenger explosion shortly

after launch on January 28, 1986. In the wake of the accident her backup,

Barbara Morgan, who was also awaiting a space mission was denied flight

status. Many members of the original 1986 Teacher in Space program have

urged NASA administrators to allow Morgan to fly and complete the lessons

from space that McAuliffe was to teach during her flight. Sources in

Washington say that the decision, when announced, will likely cause an

uproar from the teachers awaiting future flight opportunities.

On February 20, 1962 Glenn was launched aboard an Atlas rocket sealed

inside the Friendship 7, a bell-shaped space capsule, the third manned

spaceflight in U.S. history. Glenn orbited the Earth three times before

parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean safely, completing the first American

orbital mission. Prior to joining NASA in 1958 Glenn was a record-breaking

Marine Corps. fighter pilot.

A Democrat associated with President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy

family, Glenn was reelected to the Senate in 1980, 1986, and 1992. He ran

unsuccessfully for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984, but was

defeated in the primaries by former Vice President Walter Mondale and

Colorado Senator Gary Hart. Mondale, who went on to win the nomination was

defeated by President Ronald Reagan in a landslide in November, 1984.

Glenn announced last may that he would not seek another term in the Senate.

He has since indicated a desire to return to space to study the effects of

weightlessness on the elderly. The idea was considered remote -until

Washington politicians began hearing from Glenn that he was in fact serious

about the prospect of another, last space mission.