Hear John Glenn make history

BBC News Online gives you a selection of audio highlights of John Glenn's career from his first appearance as an astronaut to his first words in space.

John Glenn was first introduced to the world as one of the original seven Mercury astronauts at a 1959 press conference. None of the astronauts knew who would be chosen to orbit the Earth. Each was asked why they wanted to go into space.

February 20th 1962; lift-off of Friendship 7 on board an Atlas rocket booster. The first manned test of this new rocket.

Although the four other men who had been in space before John Glenn suffered no ill effects, doctors and scientists still wanted to hear how he was coping in zero gravity.

Glenn's re-entry was a tense and dramatic moment. Ground controllers had no way of knowing that their fears over the heat shield were due to a faulty sensor. They waited for John Glenn's first words after re-entry - if he survived.

The head of Nasa, Dan Goldin, announces John Glenn's imminent return to space in January this year, saying that one of the great heroes of the 20th century was about to become one of the first of the 21st century.

John Glenn makes it clear that he is not just along for the ride but is on the Discovery mission to perform serious scientific experiments.