Glenn Takes a Spin in a Centrifuge

With an ambulance just yards away, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) crawled into a centrifuge Thursday and was spun at three times the force of gravity to get ready for his space shuttle launching this fall.

The ambulance was unnecessary for the world’s oldest astronaut. The 76-year-old senator said everything went well, and the centrifuge operators agreed.

“Feel fine,” Glenn assured everyone after the second of two nine-minute centrifuge tests.

Glenn, dressed in his orange flight suit, seemed to enjoy himself. Lying on his back, knees up, just as astronauts do inside the shuttle during liftoff, he raised and swung his arms to see if he could lift them. He seemed surprised he couldn’t raise his head when the accelerating force reached three Gs but was told that was normal.

The test was conducted on the eve of the 36th anniversary of Glenn’s historic flight aboard Friendship 7. Glenn experienced as many as eight Gs when he became the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.