Astronaut Scott Carpenter Passes Away
By Space Coast Daily // October 10, 2013
John Glenn last member of Mercury seven
ABOVE VIDEO: After being chosen for Project Mercury in 1959, Carpenter served as backup pilot for John Glenn, who flew the first U.S. orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 in February 1962.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter has passed away at the age of 88 in Denver.
Carpenter had a stroke and entered a hospice in Denver where he died today. He is survived by his wife, Patty; four sons, Jay, Matthew, Nicholas and Zachary; two daughters Kristen Stoever and Candace Carpenter; a granddaughter; and five stepgrandchildren. Two sons, Timothy and Scott, died before him.
Malcolm Scott Carpenter was an American test pilot, astronaut and aquanaut. He is best known as one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA’s Project Mercury in April 1959.
Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. With Carpenter’s death, Glenn—as the oldest of the group—is the last living member of the Mercury Seven.
NASA CAREER
After being chosen for Project Mercury in 1959, Carpenter served as backup pilot for John Glenn, who flew the first U.S. orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 in February 1962.
When Deke Slayton was withdrawn on medical grounds from Project Mercury’s second manned orbital flight (to be titled Delta 7), Carpenter was assigned to replace him.
He flew into space on May 24, 1962, atop the Mercury-Atlas 7 rocket for a three-orbit science mission that lasted nearly five hours. His Aurora 7 spacecraft attained a maximum altitude of 164 miles (264 km) and an orbital velocity of 17,532 miles per hour.
