SCOTT CARPENTER SPLASHES DOWN IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
Cape Canaveral, Florida (JFK+50) Fifty-three years ago today, May 24, 1962, American astronaut Scott Carpenter*, after three successful earth orbits, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 250 miles away from his scheduled landing point.
After spending almost five hours in space aboard the Aurora 7, the astronaut then had to wait three more hours for Navy personnel to get in a position to retrieve him. He was found bobbing up and down in his life raft beside his space capsule.
Scott Carpenter became the second American astronaut to orbit the earth and the first to eat solid food in space. After the flight, he served in the Navy's SEALAB program and resigned from NASA in 1967.
*Malcolm Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, was born in Boulder, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1962. MSC became a US Navy pilot and served in the Korean War.
MSC died in hospice care in Denver on October 10, 2013, 50 years to the day after President John F. Kennedy presented the Collier Trophy to the Mercury 7 at the White House.
Malcolm Scott Carpenter
Carpenter in Recovery Training
SOURCE
"Scott Carpenter, Mercury astronaut, dead at 88," by William Harwood, www.cbsnews.com
Cape Canaveral, Florida (JFK+50) Fifty-three years ago today, May 24, 1962, American astronaut Scott Carpenter*, after three successful earth orbits, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 250 miles away from his scheduled landing point.
After spending almost five hours in space aboard the Aurora 7, the astronaut then had to wait three more hours for Navy personnel to get in a position to retrieve him. He was found bobbing up and down in his life raft beside his space capsule.
Scott Carpenter became the second American astronaut to orbit the earth and the first to eat solid food in space. After the flight, he served in the Navy's SEALAB program and resigned from NASA in 1967.
*Malcolm Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, was born in Boulder, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1962. MSC became a US Navy pilot and served in the Korean War.
MSC died in hospice care in Denver on October 10, 2013, 50 years to the day after President John F. Kennedy presented the Collier Trophy to the Mercury 7 at the White House.
Malcolm Scott Carpenter
NASA Photo (1964)
Carpenter in Recovery Training
NASA Photo (July 1962)
SOURCE
"Scott Carpenter, Mercury astronaut, dead at 88," by William Harwood, www.cbsnews.com
