Scott Carpenter,American astronaut. Portrait of Scott Carpenter (1925-2013),looking into a Celestial Training Device (globe) during 3D-space navigation training in the Aeromedical Laboratory at Cape Canaveral,Florida,USA. Carpenter was a naval officer,test pilot,aeronautical engineer and astronaut. He piloted the Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7) mission launched on 24th May 1962. This was the second American mission to put a human in Earth orbit. It was a success,with Carpenter completing three Earth orbits in five hours in the Mercury capsule Aurora 7. However,a targeting mishap during re-entry took the spacecraft about 400 kilometres off course,delaying recovery of Carpenter and the craft |