Scott Carpenter

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Featured article Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American (after John Glenn) to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, after Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and Glenn.

Commissioned into the U.S. Navy in 1949, Carpenter became a naval aviator, flying a Lockheed P-2 Neptune with Patrol Squadron 6 (VP-6) on reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare missions along the coasts of the Soviet Union and China during the Korean War and the Cold War. In 1954, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and became a test pilot. In 1958, he was named Air Intelligence Officer of Template:USS, which was then in dry dock at the Bremerton Navy Yard.

The following year, Carpenter was selected as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts. He was backup to Glenn during the latter's Mercury Atlas 6 orbital mission. Carpenter flew the next mission, Mercury Atlas 7, in the spacecraft he named Aurora 7. Due to a series of malfunctions, the spacecraft landed Template:Convert downrange from its intended splashdown point, but both pilot and spacecraft were retrieved.

In 1964, Carpenter obtained permission from NASA to take a leave of absence to join the U.S. Navy SEALAB project as an aquanaut. During training he suffered injuries that grounded him, making him unavailable for further spaceflights. In 1965, he spent 28 days living on the ocean floor off the coast of California as part of SEALAB II. He returned to NASA as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, then joined the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project in 1967 as Director of Aquanaut Operations for SEALAB III. He retired from NASA in 1967 and the Navy in 1969, with the rank of commander.

Carpenter became a consultant to sport and diving manufacturers, and to the film industry on space flight and oceanography. He gave talks and appeared in television documentaries. He was involved in projects related to biological pest control and waste disposal, and for the production of energy from industrial and agricultural wastes. He appeared in television commercials and wrote a pair of technothrillers and an autobiography, For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut, co-written with his daughter, Kristen Stoever.

Early life

Malcolm Scott Carpenter was born on May 1, 1925, in Boulder, Colorado,Template:Sfn the son of Marion Scott Carpenter (1901–1973), a research chemist, and Florence Kelso (Template:Nee Noxon, known in her family as "Toye"; 1900–1962). Carpenter, known in his childhood as Bud or Buddy, moved with his parents to New York City, where his father had been awarded a postdoctoral research post at Columbia University, in 1925.Template:Sfn

In the summer of 1927, Carpenter's mother, who was ill with tuberculosis, returned to Boulder, taking him with her. (In those days, mountain air was believed to aid recovery). Her condition deteriorated, and she entered the Mesa Vista Sanatorium in 1930. She recovered sufficiently to become chief medical librarian at Boulder Community Hospital in 1945. Carpenter's father remained in New York, but found it hard to find work during the Great Depression. Eventually his father secured a good position at Givaudan. Carpenter's parents divorced in 1945, and his father remarried.Template:Sfn

Carpenter lived with his maternal grandparents in the family home at the corner of Aurora Avenue and Seventh Street.Template:Sfn He later denied naming his spacecraft Aurora 7 after Aurora Avenue.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> He was educated at University Hill Elementary School in Boulder and Boulder High School, where he played the clarinet, was a cheerleader, and served on the editorial board of the student newspaper.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was a Boy Scout, and earned the rank of Second Class Scout.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Naval service

Like many teenagers in Boulder, Carpenter was deeply affected by the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II, and he resolved to become a naval aviator.Template:Sfn On February 12, 1943, he went to the U.S. Navy's recruiting office at Lowry Field near Denver and applied to join the Navy's V-5 Aviation Cadet Training Program. After obtaining his father's permission, he traveled to the headquarters of the 12th Naval District in San Francisco, where he passed physical and written examinations, and was accepted for training as an aviation cadet on April 11.Template:Sfn

The Navy had a large number of potential aviators in the pipeline at this time, so to retain young men like Carpenter, the V-12 Navy College Training Program was created, whereby cadets attended college until training positions became available. When Carpenter graduated from high school in 1943, he became a V-12A aviation cadet at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Three semesters there were followed by six months of preflight training at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California, and primary flight training at Ottumwa, Iowa, in a Stearman N2S for four months.Template:Sfn<ref name="selfbio">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn The war ended before he finished training, so the Navy released him from active duty in September 1945.Template:Sfn

After visiting his father and stepmother in New York, Carpenter returned to Boulder in November 1945 to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado. He was given credit for his previous study, and entered as a junior.Template:Sfn While there he joined Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was severely injured in a car accident on September 14, 1946, after he fell asleep at the wheel of his 1934 Ford. The car went over a cliff and overturned.Template:Sfn At the end of his senior year, he missed his final examination in heat transfer; a washed-out bridge prevented him from getting to class. This left him one requirement short of a degree.Template:Sfn Template:Efn

Carpenter met Rene Louise Price, a fellow student at the University of Colorado, where she studied history and music at the campus bookstore, where she worked part-time. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Her parents had also separated when she was young, and her mother too suffered from tuberculosis. They were married at St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder in September 1948.Template:Sfn

Plans to retake his heat transfer course were put aside when Carpenter was recruited by the Navy's Direct Procurement Program (DPP) as its 500th candidate. Through an oversight, the Navy assumed that he had earned his degree. He reported for duty on October 31, 1949, at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, for pre-flight training. He graduated from pre-flight training on March 6, 1950, and then commenced primary flight training at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, learning to fly in an SNJ trainer.Template:Sfn He then went on to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi for advanced training. Most newly-trained naval aviators—including Carpenter—aspired to fly jet fighters, but in view of his responsibilities as a husband and father (his first child was born on January 20, 1950, and Rene was pregnant with a second), he elected the less dangerous option of flying multi-engine patrol aircraft. Rene disagreed with this decision. His advanced training was in the Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, a single-tail version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Rene pinned his aviator wings on him on April 19, 1951, signifying completion of his flight training.Template:Sfn

After three months at the Fleet Airborne Electronics Training School in San Diego, California, Carpenter went to a P2V Neptune transitional training unit at Whidbey Island, Washington,Template:Sfn after which he was assigned to Patrol Squadron 6 (VP-6), based at Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii, in November 1951. On his first deployment, Carpenter flew on reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare missions from Naval Air Station Atsugi in Japan during the Korean War.Template:Sfn The missions could be dangerous: on November 6, 1951, one of his squadron's aircraft was shot down over the Sea of Japan by two Soviet Lavochkin La-11 fighters, with the loss of all ten crew.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On his second deployment, forward-based at Naval Air Facility Adak, Alaska, he flew surveillance missions along the Soviet and Chinese coasts.Template:Sfn For his third and final deployment, he was based on Guam, flying missions off the coast of China. He was designated as patrol plane commander, the only one in VP-6 with the rank of lieutenant (junior grade)—all the rest held higher rank.Template:Sfn

Impressed with his performance, the commanding officer of VP-6, Commander Guy Howard,Template:Sfn recommended Carpenter's appointment to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.Template:Sfn Carpenter was part of Class 13, at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, in 1954. He flew aircraft such as the AD Skyraider and the Martin P4M Mercator. For the first time, he flew jets, including the F9F Panther, F11F Tiger and A3D Skywarrior.Template:Sfn He remained at Patuxent River until 1957, working as a test pilot in the Electronics Test Division.<ref name="selfbio" />

Carpenter attended the Navy General Line School in Monterey, California, in 1957,<ref name="selfbio" /> and then the Naval Air Intelligence School at NAS Anacostia in Washington D.C.Template:Sfn In 1958 he was named Air Intelligence Officer of Template:USS, which was in dry dock at the Bremerton Navy Yard.Template:Sfn

NASA career

Mercury Seven

Template:Main

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This shattered Americans' confidence in their technological superiority, creating a wave of anxiety known as the Sputnik crisis. Among his responses, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Space Race. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958, as a civilian agency to develop space technology. One of its first initiatives was Project Mercury,Template:Sfn which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, evaluate his capabilities in space, and return him safely to the Earth.Template:Sfn

The first astronaut intake was drawn from the ranks of military test pilots. The service records of 508 graduates of test pilot schools were obtained from the Department of Defense. Of these, 110 met the minimum standards:Template:Sfn the candidates had to be younger than 40, possess a bachelor's degree or equivalent and to be Template:Convert or less. While these were not all strictly enforced, the height requirement was firm, owing to the size of the Project Mercury spacecraft.Template:Sfn DPP was restricted to those with bachelor's degrees, so it was assumed that Carpenter had one.Template:Sfn

On February 2, 1959, the first 35 candidates went to The Pentagon, where they met with the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Arleigh Burke, and the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General (United States) Thomas D. White, who assured them that the services would support them if they volunteered to become astronauts, and that their professional progress and promotions would not be affected. The number of candidates was reduced to 32, which the NASA selection panel considered to be an adequate number from which to select 12 astronauts. The degree of interest also indicated that far fewer would drop out during training than anticipated, which would result in training astronauts who would not be required to fly Project Mercury missions. It was therefore decided to halve the number of astronauts.Template:Sfn

Then came a grueling series of physical and psychological tests at the Lovelace Clinic and the Wright Aerospace Medical Laboratory.Template:Sfn Carpenter had the lowest body fat, scored highest on the treadmill and cycling tests, and was able to hold his breath the longest.Template:Sfn This was despite the fact that he had smoked a pack of cigarettes a day since joining the Navy in 1943, and did not quit smoking until 1985.Template:Sfn

NASA's Charles J. Donlan called Carpenter's home on April 3, 1959, to inform him that he had been one of the seven men selected. Rene answered; Carpenter was on Hornet, but she could reach him. Carpenter called Donlan from a wharfside pay phone to accept the offer, but HornetTemplate:'s skipper, Captain Marshall W. White, refused to release him. Donlan called Burke, who contacted White and promised to send him another intelligence officer, but told him that the country needed Carpenter for the NASA assignment.Template:Sfn

The identities of the seven were announced at a press conference at Dolley Madison House in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1959:Template:Sfn Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.Template:Sfn The magnitude of the challenge ahead of them was made clear a few weeks later, on the night of May 18, 1959, when the seven astronauts gathered at Cape Canaveral to watch their first rocket launch, of an SM-65D Atlas, which was similar to the one that would carry them into orbit. A few minutes after liftoff, it spectacularly exploded, lighting up the night sky. The astronauts were stunned. Shepard turned to Glenn and said: "Well, I'm glad they got that out of the way."Template:Sfn

Mercury-Atlas 7

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Mission

Carpenter, along with the other six Mercury astronauts, participated in the development of the Mercury spacecraft.Template:Sfn Each had a specialty; Carpenter's was the onboard navigational equipment.Template:Sfn He served as backup pilot on Mercury-Atlas 6 for Glenn,Template:Sfn who flew the first U.S. orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 in February 1962. Carpenter, serving as capsule communicator on this flight, can be heard saying "Godspeed, John Glenn" on the recording of Glenn's liftoff.Template:Sfn

The next mission, a second crewed orbital flight, was to be flown by Slayton in a spacecraft he would have named Delta 7, but Slayton was suddenly grounded for an atrial fibrillation.Template:Sfn Carpenter was assigned to replace him instead of Slayton's backup, Schirra, as Carpenter had more training time in the simulators.Template:Sfn In contrast to Glenn's flight, Mercury-Atlas 7 was planned as a scientific mission rather than an engineering one.Template:Sfn

After the most trouble-free countdown of Project Mercury to date, Carpenter flew into space on May 24, 1962, watched by 40 million television viewers.Template:Sfn He performed five onboard experiments per the flight plan,Template:Efn and became the first American astronaut to eat solid food in space. He also identified the mysterious "fireflies" observed by Glenn during Friendship 7 as particles of frozen liquid loosened from the outside of the spacecraft, which he could produce by rapping on the wall near the window. He renamed them "frostflies".Template:Sfn

Unnoticed by ground control or the pilot, an overexpenditure of fuel was caused by an intermittently malfunctioning pitch horizon scanner (PHS). Still, NASA later reported that Carpenter had:

Template:Blockquote

At the retrofire event, the PHS malfunctioned once more, forcing Carpenter to manually control his reentry. This caused him to overshoot the planned splashdown point in the Atlantic Ocean by Template:Convert.Template:Sfn The PHS malfunction yawed the spacecraft 25 degrees to the right, accounting for Template:Convert of overshoot; the delay caused by the automatic sequencer required Carpenter to fire the retrorockets manually. This effort took two pushes of the override button and accounted for another 15 to Template:Convert of overshoot. The thrusters had a set ignition sequence, and this sequence was delayed by Carpenter manually firing them. This added another Template:Convert, producing a Template:Convert overshoot.Template:Sfn Had Carpenter not assumed manual control, the overshoot would have been greater still.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The spacecraft splashed down at 19°27'N, 63°59'W, about Template:Cvt north of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands.Template:Sfn The flight lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes,Template:Sfn during which Aurora 7 had attained a maximum altitude of Template:Convert and an orbital velocity of Template:Convert and traveled Template:Convert.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Recovery

There was a great deal of public concern over whether Carpenter had survived. Broadcasting from a CBS news van in Florida, Walter Cronkite painted a grim picture. Although Aurora 7Template:'s Search And Rescue And Homing (SARAH) beacon broadcast its precise location, and the recovery vessels, the aircraft carrier Template:USS and the destroyer Template:USS, were on their way, NASA did not pass this information along to the news media.Template:Sfn Cronkite reported that "while thousands watch and pray, certainly here at Cape Canaveral, the silence is almost intolerable."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Knowing that the recovery vessels might take some time to get to him, and aware of the danger of Aurora 7 foundering, as had happened to Grissom's Liberty Bell 7, Carpenter made his way out through the neck of the spacecraft, something the less agile Glenn had been unable to do. He inflated his life raft, climbed into it, and awaited rescue. The sea around him was stained with green dye released to attract the rescue helicopter. The life raft had no radio.Template:Sfn

About 36 minutes after splashdown, Carpenter spotted two aircraft. A P2V Neptune from Patrol Squadron 18 flying out of Naval Air Station Jacksonville was the first to sight and mark Carpenter's position. It was followed by a Piper Apache, which circled and photographed. Carpenter then knew he had been located.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="McDonald">Template:Cite journal</ref> They were followed by SC-54 Skymaster aircraft, one of which parachuted two frogmen, Airman First Class John F. Heitsch and Sergeant Ray McClure, while another dropped a flotation collar that the frogmen attached to Aurora 7. A radio battery was dropped, but not the radio. An Air Force SA-16 Albatross arrived to collect them, but NASA Mission Control forbade it for fear that the seaplane might break up, although the crew did not consider the swell dangerous. After three hours, Carpenter was picked up by a HSS-2 Sea King helicopter, which took him to Intrepid, while Aurora 7 was recovered by John R. Pierce.Template:Sfn<ref name="McDonald" />

Postflight

Postflight analysis described the PHS malfunction as "mission critical" but noted that the pilot "adequately compensated" for "this anomaly ... in subsequent inflight procedures,"Template:Sfn confirming that backup systems—human pilots—could succeed when automatic systems fail.Template:Sfn Organizational tensions between the astronaut office and the flight controller office and simmering resentment among the latter of the astronauts' hero status—account for much of the criticism of Carpenter's performance during his flight.Template:Sfn

NASA's 1989 official history of Project Mercury says that until the third pass over Hawaii, Christopher C. Kraft Jr. (who directed the flight from Cape Canaveral) "considered this mission the most successful to date; everything had gone perfectly except for some overexpenditure of hydrogen peroxide fuel".Template:Sfn However, then problems occurred. Kraft wrote in his 2001 memoir: "He was completely ignoring our request to check his instruments... I swore an oath that Scott Carpenter would never again fly in space."Template:Sfn Kraft went so far as to name the chapter of his memoirs dealing with Carpenter's flight "The Man Malfunctioned".Template:Sfn

Yet fuel consumption and other aspects of the vehicle operation were, during Project Mercury, as much if not more the responsibility of the ground controllers. Gene Kranz, assistant flight director at the time, acknowledged that and placed some of the blame on the shoulders of ground control: "A crewman distracted and behind in the flight plan is a danger to the mission and himself. ... The ground had waited too long in addressing the fuel status and should have been more forceful in getting on with the checklists."Template:Sfn

In a 2001 letter to The New York Times written in response to a review of Kraft's memoir, Carpenter wrote:

Template:Blockquote

"One might argue," wrote Tom Wolfe, "that Carpenter had mishandled the reentry, but to accuse him of panic made no sense in light of the telemetered data concerning his heart rate and his respiratory rate."Template:Sfn Schirra would later experience problems with the override button on the subsequent Mercury-Atlas 8 flight.Template:Sfn Some memoirs, such as that of Gene Cernan, revived the controversy over who or what, exactly, was to blame for the overshoot, suggesting, for example, that Carpenter was distracted by the science and engineering experiments dictated by the flight plan and by the well-reported fireflies phenomenon:

Template:Blockquote

Ocean research

Template:Main In 1963, Carpenter met Jacques Cousteau, who was giving a public lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When Carpenter expressed interest in underwater research, Cousteau suggested that he consider the U.S. Navy's SEALAB project. Carpenter sought out Captain George F. Bond from SEALAB, and obtained permission from NASA to take a leave of absence to join the project. In July 1964, he went as part of the SEALAB team to Bermuda, where they held training exercises at Plantagenet Bank in Template:Convert of water. While in Bermuda, Carpenter sustained an injury from a motorcycle accident when he crashed into a coral wall,Template:Sfn leaving him with a compound fracture in his right arm and damage to his left knee.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The first of three SEALAB II teams. Carpenter is second from left in the front row.

In August and September 1965, Carpenter spent 28 days living on the ocean floor in SEALAB II at a depth of Template:Convert about Template:Convert off the coast of California. The depth required a cabin gas mixture of 85% helium, 11% nitrogen and 4% oxygen.<ref name="Clarke">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He suffered another injury when his right index finger was wounded by the toxic spines of a scorpion fish.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> SEALAB II coincided with Cooper's Gemini 5 mission, and Cooper and Carpenter held the first conversation between a craft in outer space and one on the ocean floor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn

Carpenter returned to NASA as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center. He spent the last part of his NASA career developing underwater training to help astronauts with future spacewalks. He resigned from NASA on August 3, 1967, and joined the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project based in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Director of Aquanaut Operations for SEALAB III.<ref name="Clarke"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the aftermath of aquanaut Berry L. Cannon's death while attempting to repair a leak in SEALAB III, he volunteered to dive down to SEALAB and help return it to the surface, but SEALAB was ultimately salvaged in a less hazardous manner.Template:Sfn

After failing to regain mobility in his arm that had been damaged in the motorcycle accident despite surgical interventions in 1964 and 1967,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn and diagnosed with avascular necrosis in the knees from deep-sea diving, Carpenter was ruled ineligible for further spaceflight and deep-sea missions. He retired from the Navy in 1969 with the rank of commander, after which he founded Sea Sciences, Inc., a corporation for developing programs for using ocean resources and improving environmental health.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn

After retiring from the Navy, Carpenter became a consultant to sport and diving manufacturers, and to the film industry, on space flight and oceanography. He gave talks and appeared in television documentaries on these subjects. He was involved in projects related to biological pest control and waste disposal, and for the production of energy from industrial and agricultural wastes.Template:Sfn<ref name="selfbio" /> Together with the other Mercury Seven astronauts, he established the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation for science and engineering students.<ref name="New York Times Obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

Carpenter appeared in television commercials for brands such as Oldsmobile, Standard Oil of California, Nintendo, and Atari. He wrote a pair of technothrillers, The Steel Albatross (1991) and Deep Flight (1994), and in 2003 he published his autobiography, For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut, which was co-written with his daughter, Kristen Stoever.Template:Sfn<ref name="selfbio" /> On Veterans Day in 2008, he joined President George W. Bush and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin in a ceremony aboard the Intrepid, the ship whose helicopter had recovered him after his Aurora 7 spaceflight having since become a museum. In 2012, he joined Glenn and former NASA support staff to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Glenn's mission.<ref name="New York Times Obit" />

Personal life

Carpenter was married four times, divorced three times, and had a total of eight children by three wives, seven of whom survived to adulthood.Template:Sfn He married his first wife, Rene, in September 1948.Template:Sfn They had five children: Marc Scott, Kristen Elaine, Candace Noxon, Robyn Jay,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Timothy Kit, who died in infancy.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn By 1968, Carpenter and his wife had separated, with him living in California and Rene with their children in Washington, D.C. The Carpenters divorced in 1972.<ref name="rene">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 1972, Carpenter married his second wife, Maria Roach, the daughter of film producer Hal Roach.<ref name="rene" /> Together, they had two children: Matthew Scott and Nicholas Andre, who would later become a filmmaker.Template:Sfn He married his third wife, Barbara Curtin, in 1988. They had a son, Zachary Scott, when Carpenter was in his 60s. The marriage ended in divorce a few years later.Template:Sfn In 1999, when he was 74, Carpenter married his fourth wife, Patricia Barrett. They resided in Vail, Colorado.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September 2013, Carpenter suffered a stroke and was hospitalized at the Swedish Medical Center in Denver. He was then admitted to the Denver Hospice Inpatient Care Center. He died on October 10, 2013, at age 88. He was survived by his wife, four sons and two daughters, a granddaughter, and five step-grandchildren.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn

The Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, ordered flags to be flown at half-mast. A public memorial service was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder, which was attended by fellow astronauts John Glenn, Gene Cernan, Charles Duke, Rusty Schweickart, Jack Schmitt, David Scott, Charles Bolden, Dan Brandenstein, Bob Crippen, Bruce McCandless II, Dick Truly and Charles D. Walker.Template:Sfn His remains were cremated and the ashes buried on the family's ranch near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

When asked in 2012 what his legacy would be, Carpenter replied: "I was an astronaut and an aquanaut."Template:Sfn Template:-

Awards and honors

U.S. Government awards

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Navy Astronaut Wings<ref name="nasa bio">Template:Cite web</ref>
Legion of Merit<ref name="nasa bio" />	Distinguished Flying Cross<ref name="nasa bio" />	NASA Distinguished Service Medal<ref name="nasa bio" />
Navy Unit Commendation<ref name="history.navy.mil bio">Template:Cite web</ref>	American Campaign Medal<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />	World War II Victory Medal<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />
China Service Medal<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />	National Defense Service Medal with bronze star<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />	Korean Service Medal with two battle stars<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />	United Nations Korea Medal<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />	Korean War Service Medal<ref name="history.navy.mil bio" />

Civilian awards

University of Colorado Recognition Medal<ref name="nasa bio" />
Collier Trophy<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
New York City Gold Medal of Honor<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Elisha Kent Kane Medal<ref name="nasa bio" />
Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award<ref name="nasa bio" />

Honors

In 1962, Boulder community leaders dedicated Scott Carpenter Park and Pool in his honor. The park features a 25-foot tall climbable metal rocket spaceship.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The now-closed Aurora 7 Elementary School, also in Boulder, was named for Carpenter's spacecraft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Scott Carpenter Middle School in Westminster, Colorado, was named in his honor,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as was M. Scott Carpenter Elementary School in Old Bridge, New Jersey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station was placed on the ocean floor in 1997 and 1998. It was named in honor of his SEALAB work in the 1960s.<ref name=SCSAS>Template:Cite web</ref>

Carpenter was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 2008,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Along with the rest of the Mercury Seven astronauts, he was named to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In popular culture

Speaking from the blockhouse at the launch of Friendship 7, Carpenter said "Godspeed, John Glenn" as Glenn's vehicle rose off the launch pad to begin the first U.S. orbital mission on February 20, 1962.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The quote was included in the voiceovers of the teaser trailer for the 2009 Star Trek film.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The audio phrase is also used in Kenny G's "Auld Lang Syne" (The Millennium Mix).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Scott Tracy in the Thunderbirds television series was named after Carpenter.Template:Sfn In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, Carpenter is played by Charles Frank. Although his appearance is relatively minor, the film plays up Carpenter's friendship with Glenn (as played by Ed Harris). This film is based on the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe.Template:Sfn In the 2015 ABC TV series The Astronaut Wives Club, Carpenter is portrayed by Wilson Bethel,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and Rene Carpenter by Yvonne Strahovski.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the 2020 Disney+ miniseries The Right Stuff, Carpenter is played by James Lafferty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Books

We Seven: By the Astronauts Themselves, Template:ISBN co-written with Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.
For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut, Template:ISBN or the revised paperback edition Template:ISBN, Carpenter's biography, co-written with his daughter Kristen Stoever; describes his childhood, his experiences as a naval aviator, a Mercury astronaut, including an account of what went wrong, and right, on the flight of Aurora 7.
The Steel Albatross, Template:ISBN. Science fiction. A technothriller set around the life of a fighter pilot in the US Navy's Top Gun school.
Deep Flight, Template:ISBN. Science fiction. Follow-on to The Steel Albatross.

Footnotes

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Notes

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References

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External links

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Iven C. Kincheloe Awards
Carpenter at International Space Hall of Fame
Remembering Scott Carpenter by Patrol Squadron 6 shipmate Charles Pomeroy
Template:Cite news Rene Carpenter's article for Life magazine on Carpenter's flight.
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Scott Carpenter

Contents

Early life

Naval service

NASA career

Mercury Seven

Mercury-Atlas 7

Mission

Recovery

Postflight

Ocean research

Personal life

Awards and honors

U.S. Government awards

Civilian awards

Honors

In popular culture

Books

Footnotes

Notes

References

External links

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