Vice President Joe Biden is slated to speak Saturday at the funeral of former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn.

The memorial service will take place in Glenn’s home state of Ohio, on the campus of Ohio State University. Biden will be one of several prominent speakers at the funeral, which will include NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and retired Marine Gen. Jack Dailey.

John Glenn is remembered as a space hero in the United States after he became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. Following his two-decade career in the U.S. military, Glenn served in the Senate for 25 years.

He made history again in 1998, when, at the age of 77, he returned to space and became the oldest astronaut ever.

Glenn died at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8. He had been hospitalized around a week earlier and was surrounded by his family.

He will be buried in April at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

 
…