John Glenn honoured with launch of space station supply ship

A space station supply ship named after John Glenn is bound for orbit.

An Atlas rocket provided Tuesday's lift, just as it did for Mr Glenn 55 years ago.

The unmanned rocket took off in the late morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The commercial cargo ship, dubbed the SS John Glenn, holds nearly 3,500 kilogrammes of food, equipment and research for the International Space Station.

It is due to reach the space station on Saturday.

The shipping agency, Orbital ATK, asked Mr Glenn's widow, Annie, for permission to use his name for the spacecraft, following his death in December.

Mr Glenn, an original Mercury 7 astronaut, became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.

He launched again in 1998 on board shuttle Discovery at the age of 77, the oldest person ever in space.

AP