Brothers in arms; astronauts
Scott Carpenter (left) and
John Glenn (right).
Photo: NASA
via Retro Space Images
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he demonstrated humans could perform tasks, experiments,
communications, navigation and eat solid food in space. Due
to some technical faults, inadvertent errors during the mission,
all of which Carpenter compensated for, Aurora 7 came
home safely but overshot the target landing zone due to fuel
mismanagement during the mission. He was found by rescuers
almost 5 hours late, 1000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral,
coolly relaxing in the life raft alongside his spacecraft. Ever the
gentleman astronaut he even offered his rescuers food and
water from his survival kit.
As with many space explorers who are comfortable with
the risk of space exploration, Carpenter had remarked that his
mission realised a long held dream and that “This is something I
would gladly give my life for”. In today’s modern world of Google
Earth and armchair exploration, we should remember that back
then it took a special kind of person to ride fire into the heavens
to expand knowledge at risk of their own life. Unlike many of his
Mercury astronaut peers who were recovered and debriefed
after their space shots relatively quickly, Carpenter had time
for introspection and reflection on the events
and meaning of his experience on Aurora 7.
Carpenter was also blessed with a curious and
philosophical mind. Peering through the small
periscope of Aurora 7 into the endless night
outside, Carpenter remarked,
“From that view … you are a long way away.
Everything you see gives you satisfaction of the
expectation which involves curiosity. The most
important driver in everything we did then was
curiosity. Can we make machines do this? Can
we put our bodies through this? It’s revelatory.
Addictive. Beautiful beyond description. To
have been in space is very satisfying of one’s
curiosity. It’s instructive. It’s marvellous.”
At the time, some may have perceived those
comments and qualities to be extraneous for
a test pilot / astronaut, favouring engineering
rigour and zero margin of error during those
early missions. Consequently, Carpenter never
flew in space again. In later years his curiosity
and philosophical mind have become more
appreciated by his peers.
Following NASA, Carpenter’s curious mind to banish unknowns
led him to meeting with the French oceanographer Jacques
Cousteau. He saw many parallels, between deep space and
the deep ocean, with transferable skills, technologies and
parallel experiences. But more personally for him, like with his
Mercury flight, working beneath the waves to satisfy his curiosity
would remove any “unreasoned fears”, just as he had done
above the clouds on Aurora 7. As part of the Navy’s Sea Lab
II experiment, Carpenter spent 30 days in spring 1965 on the
ocean floor of La Jolla as an aquanaut, proving humans could
survive in this environment. At one point during his time under
the waves, he even spoke by phone to the crew of Gemini 5
orbiting far overhead. Old Mercury Seven buddy Gordo Cooper
was no doubt happy to hear him. His work on the ocean floor
has yielded cross benefits for NASA too as Carpenter became
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