On May 24, 1962,
University of Colorado Boulder alumnus
Scott Carpenter lifted off from Earth in
NASA's Aurora 7 space capsule mounted
atop a Mercury-Atlas rocket at Cape
Canaveral, Fla., swiftly climbing to
roughly 165 miles in altitude.
The NASA
astronaut and his capsule were swept
into Earth's orbit, eventually speeding
around the planet at 17,000 miles per
hour - a velocity roughly equal to
flying from New York to Nepal and back
in under 60 minutes. Carpenter, who
attended CU-Boulder from 1945 through
1949 in the aeronautical engineering
department, made three orbits of Earth
in roughly five hours before splashing
down in the Atlantic.
Carpenter was
the fourth American astronaut to fly in
space, following Alan Shepard, Gus
Grissom and John Glenn, and the second
to achieve orbit around Earth behind
Glenn. As one of the "Original Mercury
7" astronauts, Carpenter made an
indelible mark on history with the
flight of the Aurora 7 mission. He and
his colleagues were celebrated in the
Tom Wolfe book, "The Right Stuff," which
told the
story
of early military test pilots as well as
the original Mercury astronauts.
A half-century
later, Carpenter looked back at his time
in space. "That seems like a long time
ago," said Carpenter, now 87 and living
in Vail. "I still remember what a thrill
it was being up there - I liked the
feeling of weightlessness, and the view
I had of the Earth."
Carpenter will
participate in two days of events May 23
and May 24 in New York City in honor of
the 50th anniversary of NASA's Aurora 7
flight. The events, sponsored by the
Astronaut Scholarship Foundation created
by the Mercury 7 astronauts "will be a
great honor for me," said Carpenter.
In February,
Glenn and Carpenter - the only two
living Mercury astronauts - attended a
ceremony at Kennedy Space Center in
Florida celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the nation's first two orbital
flights.
"Scott
Carpenter is the epitome of all of the
good things about the University of
Colorado Boulder's leading
role
in probing the frontiers of space," said
CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano.
"The 50th anniversary of his mission is
a tribute to NASA's original Mercury 7
crew and to all of the NASA astronauts,
including many associated with
CU-Boulder, who have stood on their
shoulders."
One of his most
vivid memories during the Aurora 7
mission, Carpenter said, was his
successful role as a sleuth. During
Glenn's February 1962 orbiting mission,
he reported seeing brightly lit
particles swirling about outside the
space capsule, which he dubbed
"fireflies." The mysterious particles
baffled not only Glenn, but also NASA
engineers and scientists.
Carpenter
observed the same type of fireflies
outside the space capsule during the
Aurora 7 flight. During the mission, he
accidently banged on the capsule cabin
wall, causing a swarm of the fireflies
to appear through the window. Carpenter
almost immediately identified them as
tiny ice particles dislodged from the
capsule's exterior shell, subsequently
dubbing them harmless "frostflies." "I
was particularly pleased that I was able
to demystify John Glenn's 'fireflies,' "
he said.
Born in Boulder
on May 1, 1925, Carpenter grew up in a
house at Seventh Street and Aurora
Avenue, and graduated from Boulder High
School in 1943. He then entered the
Navy's V5 flight training
program
at CU-Boulder. He spent the next year
training in
California
and Iowa, returning to Boulder in 1945
to study aeronautical engineering at CU
for the next four years.
Carpenter was
commissioned in the U.S. Navy in 1949
and flew a variety of missions during
the Korean War. He attended Navy Test
Pilot School in Maryland in 1954 and was
assigned as an Air Intelligence Officer
on the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. In
April of 1959 he was selected by NASA to
be an astronaut.
After serving
as backup pilot for Glenn for America's
first manned orbital space flight on
Feb. 20, 1962, Carpenter got his own
chance just three months later. At the
end of the successful mission his space
capsule landed in the Atlantic Ocean
about 135 miles northeast of Puerto
Rico. Soon after, he took congratulatory
calls from President John F. Kennedy and
Vice President Lyndon Johnson.
Although he was
one course requirement short of
graduating with a bachelor's degree in
aeronautical engineering when he left CU
in 1949, the university awarded him his
degree in 1962 following the successful
Aurora 7 flight. When presenting the
degree to Carpenter, CU President Quigg
Newton said "his subsequent training as
an astronaut has more than made up for
his deficiency in the subject of heat
transfer."
In 1965
Carpenter took a leave of absence from
NASA to participate in the Navy's
Man-in-the-Sea Project as an "aquanaut"
in the SEALAB II project off the coast
of La Jolla, Calif.,
where he spent
30 days living and working on the ocean
floor at a depth of more than 200 feet.
While undersea he spoke by phone with
astronauts Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad
as they sailed overhead during their
eight-day Gemini 5 mission.
Because of his
groundbreaking deep-sea diving
experiences with the Navy, Carpenter is
hailed by many to be the first person to
conquer both outer and inner space.
In 1967 he
became the Navy's director of aquanaut
operations during the SEALAB III
experiment. After retiring from the Navy
in 1969, he founded and became CEO of
Sea Sciences Inc., a venture capital
corporation that developed programs
aimed at enhanced use of ocean resources
and improved health of the planet. He
worked closely with noted diver and
scientist Jacques Cousteau and members
of his Calypso team, and subsequently
dove in most of the world's oceans,
including under Arctic ice.
Buoyed by his
background in aerospace and ocean
engineering, he also developed a career
as a consultant to industry and the
private sector, has lectured around the
world, narrated television
documentaries
and written several books, including the
2002 New York Times best-seller, "For
Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of
a Mercury Astronaut" co-authored with
his daughter, Kris Stoever. Carpenter
continues to travel, lecture and
consult.
Carpenter's
name and fame is synonymous with several
Boulder landmarks, including Scott
Carpenter Park and Pool and the Aurora 7
Elementary School.
"I'm very proud
of my attendance at the University of
Colorado," said Carpenter, the first of
19 CU astronaut-affiliates to fly in
space. "And there was not a better home
for me than Boulder."
