It’s been 50 years since John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, but questions are being raised about the current state of the U.S. space program and its future in another 10 – and even – 50 years.

It was on Feb. 20, 1962, that Glenn made three orbits around the Earth in some five hours – which made him a U.S. hero.

"It seems to me like it was about a week or two ago, because I guess I've recalled it quite often over the past 50 years and that's kept it fresh," Glenn, 90, said during a CNN interview on Monday about his own first orbit. "It was such an impressive thing at the time that it's indelibly imprinted on my memory and I can recall those days very very well.”

Recently, Glenn said it was the administration of  George W. Bush which cut NASA's funding – much to Glenn’s regret, AFP reports. Other space travel supporters have criticized the current Obama administration for its lack of support for NASA.

"I think it's too bad," Glenn was quoted by the AFP. "I just hope some of the efforts now to recreate our own (space) transportation system come through."

Instead, now NASA is looking to private companies to replace the shuttle program, according to news reports. For example, SpaceX (News - Alert) is expected to launch a spacecraft on March 20, which will travel to the International Space Station. Manned spacecraft will take five years to be launched under the new privatized program. Also, the Russians – who once were Cold War rivals and space competitors to the United States – are now relied upon to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station, according to a report carried by TMCnet.

Glenn’s flight came almost a year after April 12, 1961, when Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first person to orbit the Earth.

The lack of funding for NASA has been highlighted by many interested in space travel. For instance, in a recent letter to The New York Times, Jay M. Pasachoff, director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College, said that, “John Glenn’s epic flight united the world and raised the stature of the United States. When we see a Chinese taikonaut or an Indian vyomanaut standing on the moon in 2020 or so, people will be asking, ‘Who lost space?’”

“As an astronomer, I am firmly in support of the scientific advances of NASA’s unmanned space program, but I think it would be a serious error not to put serious funds toward launching Americans to the moon and, eventually, beyond,” he added in the letter.

Meanwhile, Glenn – to recognize the 50th anniversary of the orbit – recently spoke to enthusiastic workers at the Kennedy Space Center. Other events to mark the anniversary took place at the Ohio State University.

Also with him at the space center was Scott Carpenter, 86, another Mercury 7 astronaut. Carpenter orbited the Earth on May 24, 1962. He recently said how he would like the United States to visit Mars.

Later in his career, Glenn served in the U.S. Senate for 24 years, representing Ohio, and was a one-time presidential candidate. Then at age 77, he once again orbited the Earth on shuttle Discovery in 1998, according to a report from The Associated Press (News - Alert).

In recent years, NASA admits that “problems arose that could have spelled disaster” during Glenn’s first orbit. The automatic control system failed at the close of the first orbit.  "I went to manual control and continued in that mode during the second and third orbits, and during re-entry," Glenn said recently, NASA reports. "The malfunction just forced me to prove very rapidly what had been planned over a longer period of time." In addition, the heat shield was loose.

Before his career as an astronaut, Glenn was a heroic Marine aviator. He flew many combat missions during both WW II and the Korean War.