Former astronaut, senator John Glenn doing well after surgery

[June 12, 2014]  (Reuters) - Former astronaut and Senator John Glenn is resting comfortably at home in Columbus, Ohio, after undergoing heart valve surgery, a spokesman for Ohio State University said on Wednesday.

Glenn, 92, who was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962 and flew on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998, had the surgery at the Cleveland Clinic last month, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at OSU.

"He is fine, he is recuperating well and is in good spirits and in great shape," Wilson said. "Everything went well. He's well."

A veteran of World War Two and the Korean War who became a test pilot and an astronaut, Glenn served six terms in the U.S. Senate. He turns 93 in July.

Wilson said the surgery was minimally invasive and Glenn checks in with his office by telephone at the Glenn School several times a week.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Jim Loney)

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