Scott Carpenter:
A tribute to a curious
but ordinary superman
By Amjad P. Zaidi
One of only two remaining Mercury Program Astronauts from
the 60’s, Scott Carpenter, sadly passed beyond the veil on
Thursday, October 10, 2013 following a stroke in September. He
was 88 years of age. Carpenter was one of the earliest pioneers
in the infancy of the Space Age. He was the second American
to cross the threshold into orbital space on his MA-7 “Aurora 7”
spaceflight and the sixth man overall. He also held the unique
distinction of being not only an astronaut but an aquanaut
following his NASA career in the US Navy’s various
Sea Lab projects.
For each last step, there is a first step. Born in
Boulder, Colorado on May 1, 1925, Malcolm Scott
Carpenter was impressed by planes at the age of
five when his father took him to his first airshow. His
love of flight grew as he continued to build and fly
model balsa wood plane kits as a boy. He gained
a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical
Engineering from the University of Colorado,
before entering flight school with the U.S. Navy
at Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas.
After the Korean War where he flew aerial antisubmarine surveillance and patrols, Carpenter
enrolled at Patuxent River’s Navy Test Pilot School
in Maryland. Following this, he was assigned as an
Air Intelligence Officer on the USS Hornet. During
this time he received special orders to report to
Washington D.C. for an unnamed meeting. That
meeting led to his selection in Project Mercury on
April 9, 1959, which was instituted as the newly formed NASA’s
first step to catch up to the Soviets who had taken an early lead
in the rapidly escalating Space Race.
What followed is fabled history. The exhaustive raft of testing
of 110 candidates down to what are now known as the “Original
Seven” and Carpenter formed part of that elite fraternity of
Mercury Astronauts. Their every move was recorded and lauded
by the public at large as the nascent American Space Program
took its initial steps forward. Due to his communications and
navigation experience Carpenter was back-up on his good
friend John Glenn’s orbital flight. Upon launch, as Glenn cleared
the tower, Carpenter’s words of “Godspeed John Glenn” were
recorded and have echoed through the years of spaceflight
history. Carpenter repeated this goodwill message when Glenn
went into orbit again aboard the Shuttle in 1998.
On May 24, 1962, Carpenter’s own flight dubbed “Aurora 7”
launched and completed three orbits of the Earth. His mission;
to prove a human could work in space. This was an important
link in the chain of events which ultimately resulted in a manned
landing on the moon just seven short years later. For the first time
Scott Carpenter recieves
a call from President John
F. Kennedy while aboard
the U.S.S. Intrepid after his
recovery from his Aurora 7
spaceflight.
Photo: NASA via
Retro Space Images
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