John Glenn leaves indelible mark on Johnson Space Center

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - "He was always very polite and so kind," said retired NASA research pilot Charles Justiz. "Very soft spoken very humble."

In 1998 John Glenn spent time at the Johnson Space Center  training as a crew member on STS-95.

"Here he was, John Glenn, he had done all the things that he had done and he just immersed himself into the culture of the office just another person going to meetings and training and living day to day on our floor doing the same things we do," said JSC Chief astronaut Chris Cassidy.

Glenn was preparing for his second trip into space at the age of 76.

"One of the reasons for the flight was because we weren't sure how an elderly person would react to space flight," Justiz said.

"It's still a risky business to strap yourself to a rocket in any decade but back then there were very few rockets lifted off the planet at all let alone with people on them," Cassidy said.

"One of the things he mentioned to me when we talked about the early space program he said ok one rocket blew off the pad the next one I watched blow up at 40 thousand feet and then I flew one," said Justiz.