Carpenter Orbits Earth: Mercury Mission Nearly Lost at Sea
Scott Carpenter completed three orbits of Earth aboard the Mercury-Atlas 7 "Aurora 7" capsule on May 24, 1962, becoming the fourth American in space and the second to orbit. The mission was plagued by equipment malfunctions: a pitch horizon scanner failed, forcing Carpenter to manually control the spacecraft's attitude, consuming excessive fuel. He was so absorbed in photography and scientific observations that he forgot to turn off certain thruster systems. During reentry, a combination of a 25-degree yaw error and a three-second late firing of the retrorockets caused him to overshoot the planned landing zone by 250 miles. NASA lost contact for 40 agonizing minutes before a search plane spotted his life raft. Walter Cronkite, live on CBS, told the nation Carpenter might be dead.
May 24, 1962
64 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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