Astronaut John Glenn’s Revolutionary War Flag

Astronaut John Glenn carried this reproduction of General George Washington’s Headquarters Flag — the original of which is in collection of the Museum of the American Revolution — into space as part of the lead up to the 1999 bicentennial commemorations of Washington’s death in 1799. Glenn, who had become the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, returned to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. At 77, he was the oldest person ever to enter space. He and the other members of the Discovery crew traveled 3.6 million miles and orbited the earth 134 times. This flag accompanied them on the entire journey.