Happy birthday and Godspeed, John Glenn.

Xeni Jardin 10:47 am Thu Jul 14, 2011

Ben Cosgrove at LIFE sends word of a new batch of never before publicly viewed photographs from the "seemingly bottomless LIFE archives." On the occasion of astronaut John Glenn's 90th birthday (the actual day is Monday, July 18), LIFE published a gallery of 25 previously unpublished pics of Glenn from the late 1950s and '60s.

I was lucky enough to interview Sen Glenn last week, and asked him about Project Mercury (of course), Friendship 7, his fellow astronauts, his family, and his early forays into politics — and he was gracious and straightforward in his responses. His edited answers serve as captions in the gallery.

But I'd also like to pass along two other observations, if I may.

1) I'm quite certain that I'll never again encounter a more robust or intellectually sharp nonagenarian, and

2) the man still uses the phrase "commies" when discussing the Soviets — and he makes it sound perfectly natural. Even cool!

Here's the rest of the gallery.

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