"I feel a little bit of letdown that the whole thing is over," the aged astronaut said yesterday. "Obviously, we'd like to go right back up again, but that's not to be." In his first press conference since his historic space-shuttle journey, the 77-year-old Glenn admitted he feel too hot" as he walked out of the Discovery on Saturday after nine days in space.
He said if he looked shaky and stiff - it was because he was.

But he said he was determined to join his six crewmates for the traditional walk around the spacecraft.

"If I would have been on my hands and knees, I was going to do it," said Glenn, who beat the oldest-spaceman record by 16 years. "But obviously, I was not doing my best gait out there."

Glenn added that, although he slept well Saturday night, he's still dizzy after nine days of weightlessness and is being careful not to turn his head.

He described it as feeling "alligator headed."

Otherwise, the astronaut-turned-politician-turned-astronaut looked as healthy and fit as ever.

In fact, the only crew member to come back wounded was Stephen Robinson, 42, who hit his head when he came barreling out of a tunnel in weightlessness.

Robinson suffered a one-inch cut over his right eye.

Glenn - who heads to Houston for a welcome-back parade and three more weeks of medical tests - said this mission was just as satisfying as his history-making jaunt aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

"I got great satisfaction the first time out of just being up there and being the first one to do this for our country," he said. "And here I am all these years later."

Glenn said he wishes all older people would have the guts to realize their ambitions.

"Old folks have ambitions and dreams, too, like everybody else, and why don't they work for them? Why don't they go for it? Don't sit on a couch someplace, that's my attitude," he said.

As for his own aspirations now that he's back once more from space, the retiring Ohio senator said he doesn't have any big plans other than to work with students at his alma mater, Muskingum College, and at Ohio State University.

Although he'd love to return to space, it's not in the cards "unless there's some rising demand that I go back up again," he conceded.

He also said he promised his wife, Annie, that he'd stay put on Earth.

"We've been married a long time. Next April will be 56 years," he said. "She's been through an awful lot. I owe her a little consideration at this point in life, I think."

Meanwhile, NASA is overjoyed with the excitement Glenn's return to orbit has had on the space agency.

"There's a lot of satisfaction to me with the fact that the public is so excited and involved in it," said Herb Baker, a contracting officer with NASA.

-- Midknight - 11/09/98