RIP - Scott Carpenter

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

Died at age 88. Second Mercury astronaut to orbit the earth.
Only went up once.
He got a lot of blame for the problems of the mission, but it wasn't all his fault.
He later was a deep sea diver, working with the SEALAB project for a long time.

That leaves Glenn as the last survivor. I wonder if they put a bottle of good stuff away. (search "Last Man Club" or "Tontine")

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/10/231570261/scott-carpenter-second-american-to-orbit-earth-dies

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[DrDom 0]

wolfriverjoe

Died at age 88. Second Mercury astronaut to orbit the earth.
Only went up once.
He got a lot of blame for the problems of the mission, but it wasn't all his fault.
He later was a deep sea diver, working with the SEALAB project for a long time.

That leaves Glenn as the last survivor. I wonder if they put a bottle of good stuff away. (search "Last Man Club" or "Tontine")

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/10/231570261/scott-carpenter-second-american-to-orbit-earth-dies

I'll tell you what, they can blame him for whatever they want, but I didnt see any of those nerds in mission control up there in space. These early explorers really were traversing into the unknown with nerves and balls of steel. Second man to orbit the earth. That falls into my "Epic Awesome" category. I'll drink to him tonight.

You are not the contents of your wallet.

[Amazon 7]

wolfriverjoe

Died at age 88. Second Mercury astronaut to orbit the earth.
Only went up once.
He got a lot of blame for the problems of the mission, but it wasn't all his fault.
He later was a deep sea diver, working with the SEALAB project for a long time.

That leaves Glenn as the last survivor. I wonder if they put a bottle of good stuff away. (search "Last Man Club" or "Tontine")

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/10/231570261/scott-carpenter-second-american-to-orbit-earth-dies

And then there was one.

[airtwardo 7]

Stuck on a really LONG shipboard cruise a couple years ago...

I found Carpenter's autobiography buried in the library, read it twice.
Yeah the cruise was THAT bad.

I didn't recall offhand about the 'problems' encountered in the mission, reading the book was pretty interesting. He explained it a couple of different ways.

Overly ambitious mission to begin with...insanely confusing procedures...poor communication as in difficult to understand logical reasoning behind certain requests/demands...ground control having a deaf ear to his input...on & on.

But then later he backs up a bit and takes the blame for a lot of it.
He tried to portray the 'Right Stuff' personna on steroids, HIS ship, HIS mission, HIS command. He wasn't as technically prepared as he could have been counting on 'seat of the pants' bravado to get him through, as it seems it did in much of his flying.

Walked into the de-brief & before a word was spoken he knew he'd never fly in space again. Wrote to the effect- they didn't want test pilots, they wanted smart, programmable guinea pigs. ~ Which as he admitted, was their right, lots of $ among other things on the line.

The 'technical problem' on the over-shoot was something with the checklist..he was either late or skipped something, but could have / should have done it better.

He was there because during the selection process, almost by accident...right background - right place - right time, AND he was the guy who without question was in the best physical shape of the group.

He was a troubled kid...his last 'good' memory of his dad was at grand central station as a young kid, watching the 'Lucky Lindy' parade as pops dumped him on a train to Colorado, where mom went to be with family 'casue pops was an unfaithful drunk & abuser. ~ a trait Scott fell into as well.

He was a track star in highschool & college, running in that thin air...the physicals were at sea level, the medics though he was superman!

2nd time through the book, knowing what was coming ahead and kinda reading between the lines - he was a dick.

But he figured it out and got on a better path. He claimed no regrets, but I doubt that to an extent...ya could tell he would have handled things different at NASA could he do it over.

Like all people he had flaws, his maybe cost a career in space, either way...gotta admire the huevos it took just to screw on that helmet.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[JohnMitchell 16]

NASA tried to portray all those guys as apple pie/straight shooters. But they were humans, they were thrill seekers, they would fit right in at any DZ. They weren't boy scouts . . . except for John Glenn.

[lawrocket 3]

Godspeed, John Glenn Scott Carpenter.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[tbrown 26]

I was in the first grade when those Mercury guys were going up on their missions. I vaguely remember Carpenter, who was sort of in the shadow of the great John Glenn (my earliest hero).

Read a pretty cool quote from him though. He said he was looking at an altimeter that read 90,000 ft, looked up and saw only blackness and knew he was still going straight up. For a moment he thought "what the hell am I doing here ?".

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !