The veteran American astronaut, Senator John Glenn, has begun a new mission into space -- aboard the space shuttle Discovery -- at the age of seventy-seven.

Tens of thousands of people, including President Clinton, gathered around the launch site at Cape Canaveral in Florida to watch Glenn become the oldest person in space, thirty-six years after he became the first American to orbit the earth.

Glenn and six other crew members will carry out a series of scientific projects before returning to earth in nine days time.